using file_load?

[sandyrepope]

I'm trying to use file_load and when my script does it returns 'nothing'. I sure would like to know what I'm doing wrong. Here is what I am using.


uses "file"

dim load_it as string
dim sFile as long
dim fHandle as long
dim Load_Note as string

load_it = Dir_getcurrent + "testing.txt"

msgbox 0, load_it


sFile = file_exists(load_it)
If sFile = %true then
fHandle = file_open( load_it, "input")
Load_Note = file_load(fHandle)

msgbox 0, Load_Note

file_close(fHandle)
end if


I've tried using file_lineinput instead and it works just fine. It's just file_load that doesn't seem to work.

Thanks
Sandy

[ErosOlmi]

Hi Sandy.

FILE_LOAD (http://www.thinbasic.com/public/products/thinBasic/help/html/file_load.htm) needs a file name as input parameter. All the open, load and close operations are done internally by the function.
So your script can be something like:


uses "file"

dim load_it as string
dim Load_Note as string

load_it = Dir_getcurrent + "testing.txt"

msgbox 0, load_it

If file_exists(load_it) = %true then
Load_Note = file_load(load_it)

msgbox 0, Load_Note
end if


Ciao
Eros

[sandyrepope]

Thank You for the explanation. I had a strong feeling that I wasn't understanding something but I didn't know what. This makes it very clear to me.

Thanks
Sandy

[ErosOlmi]

Good, Sandy.

FILE_LOAD has a lot of power. It has the capacity to load from a single byte file to multi megabytes files in one go. Text files or bynary files, whatever. The full file content will be placed into the return string in a snap.

For example the following few lines of code will load a comma separated CSV file in one single line using the power of FILE_LOAD and PARSE functions together regardless the number of lines or columns will be present in CSV file.



USES "FILE"
...
dim FileToLoad as string value app_sourcepath & "CSV_SampleData.csv" '---Indicate your CSV file here
dim MyMatrix() as string
dim nLines as long
dim nCols as long

'---
'---Just one line do the job of loading file data, parsing text lines, dimensioning and filling the matrix.
'------
PARSE(FILE_Load(FileToLoad), MyMatrix(), $crlf , ",")

'--Now get the number of lines and max number of columns parsed
nLines = ubound(MyMatrix(1))
nCols = ubound(MyMatrix(2))
...


Ciao
Eros