some arrays goodies

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi,

primo basically nailed the stringBuilder usage, here a little example:

Uses "console", "stringBuilder"
 
' this will store the numbers:
Dim builder as new StringBuilder()
 
' access the numbers virtually:
Dim myNumber() as Number At 0
 
Dim i As Long ' just to list our arrays elements
 
' add a few elements, type Ext equals Number, that's why MKE$:
builder.Add(MKE$(0.12345)) ' the first element be 0.12345
' just append a bunch of new elements:
builder.Add(MKE$(1,2,3,4,5))
' and some more
builder.Add(MKE$(6.666, 7.777))
 
' now let's read what we have:
' put the virtual array onto the string:
string builderData = builder.ToString() 
Redim myNumber(Strptrlen(Strptr(builderData))/SizeOf(Number)) At Strptr(builderData)
 
' list what we have
For i = 1 to UBound(myNumber)
  PrintL i, myNumber(i)
Next
 
WaitKey

I may add direct pointer to string in stringBuilder as functionality, if there is interest. That would skip the step with assignment to temporary string variable, making it even faster


Petr

[ErosOlmi]

I may add direct pointer to string in stringBuilder as functionality, if there is interest

It would be great.

[ReneMiner]

If I understood right the stringbuilder allocates more size than the actual length of the string. But sb.Length() then returns the number of chars that are occupied.
Then assuming sb gets a new method named DataPtr() it were like

Redim myNumber(sb.Length/SizeOf(Number)) At sb.DataPtr

?
However we would access the single elements of the array myNumber using parenthesis and index. No matter what type myNumber really is, even fixed-size Udt can be used.
SizeOf(...) tells how many bytes we need, the index of myNumber(...) tells which bytes we need.

Let's say we have the array as in the example stored to builder and we want to list the arrays elements without the use of a virtual variable.

Cumbersome we have to calculate:

For i = 1 To builder.Length/SizeOf(Number)
  PrintL i, CVE(Memory_Get(builder.DataPtr + (i - 1) * SizeOf(Number), SizeOf(Number)))

Next

How about methods to stringbuilder similar to current _.Char() but
_.Element(index, SizeOf(datatype)) : return an elements data, means a sequence of bytes
_.Elements(SizeOf (datatype)) : return UBound of elements stored to sb

For i = 1 to builder.Elements(SizeOf(Number))
PrintL i, CVE (builder.Element( i, SizeOf(Number)))

Next

or even better tell stringbuilder the SizeOf elements or the required datatype and it will remember it:

Dim builder As New stringbuilder

builder.SetType(Number) ' default Byte/Char
 ' or
builder.ElementSizeSet(SizeOf(Number)) ' default 1, don't want division by 0...
builder.Add(MKE$(0.123))
builder.Add(MKE$(1,2,3,4))
builder.Add(MKE$(5.5,6.6,7.7))
For i = 1 To builder.Elements()
  PrintL i, CVE(builder.Element(i)))
' ...

I don't know if possible for Udt if using _.SetType, but having to give the size once only instead of repeating it every time were great

@ Eros,
how about
Alias MKE$ As MKNumber$
Alias CVE As CVNumber
For better readability and understanding?

[ErosOlmi]

@ Eros,
how about
Alias MKE$ As MKNumber$
Alias CVE As CVNumber
For better readability and understanding?

Yes,good point.
I will add.

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi friends,

I added the DataPtr property, which allows you to directly access the internal buffer of stringBuilder object!

@Eros: Can we please have this in the next release of thinBasic?


Petr