I'll try and give a brief description of what I am trying to do... Basically I have a string that extracted from a text file called strCombined... I want to look at that string and if it contains a certain phrase then I want to act on it... If not then perform a default action...

Now I can do this pretty easily using a nested if...then...else statement... That's long winded and messy though...

If strCombined.IndexOf("Cambridge University") Then
     strSearchName = "Cambridge University"
Else
     If strCombined.IndexOf("FM Towns") Then
          strSearchName = "FM Towns"
     Else
          If strCombined.IndexOf("Jupiter Cantab") Then
               strSearchName = "Jupiter Cantab"
          Else
               strSearchName = ""
          End If
     End If
End If

I was hoping to use some kind of select...case statement instead...

Select Case strCombined
     Case strCombined.IndexOf("Cambridge University")
          strSearchName = "Cambridge Univeristy"
     Case strCombined.IndexOf("FM Towns")
          strSearchName = "FM Towns"
     Case strCombined.IndexOf("Jupiter Cantab")
          strSearchName = "Jupiter Cantab"
     Case Else
          strSearchName = ""
End Select

This obviously is not working... I'm hoping someone here can help me to either get this working with a select...case statement or suggest some other alternative...

Thanks in advance

Mmm... Ever use ElseIf? It works very similar to a Select Case.

If strCombined.IndexOf("Cambridge University") Then
     strSearchName = "Cambridge University"
ElseIf strCombined.IndexOf("FM Towns") Then
     strSearchName = "FM Towns"
ElseIf strCombined.IndexOf("Jupiter Cantab") Then
     strSearchName = "Jupiter Cantab"
Else
     strSearchName = ""
End If

Hope this helps,
Happy coding!
-firesickle.com

No I've never seen an ElseIf before... I'm not exactly a programmer :) I just tend to throw together little applications as and when I need something...

It does look incredibly like a SelectCase statement... I'll try it out shortly but it looks like it will work perfectly...

Thank you

: No I've never seen an ElseIf before... I'm not exactly a programmer
: :) I just tend to throw together little applications as and when I
: need something...
:
: It does look incredibly like a SelectCase statement... I'll try it
: out shortly but it looks like it will work perfectly...
:
: Thank you
:
:
You already write better code then a lot of programmers I know... haha
I took a second look at your original post, It looked like you have a huge string of combined values (I am making an assumption based on your variable name).
How are you handling the case where two of those If Statements would be true. In a Select Case or the If Statements you and I both wrote, the first case that is met will be the only case that is executed...
I figure you've already thought of this, but incase you haven't...

happy coding :)
firesickle.com

: You already write better code then a lot of programmers I know...
: haha
: I took a second look at your original post, It looked like you have
: a huge string of combined values (I am making an assumption based on
: your variable name).
: How are you handling the case where two of those If Statements would
: be true. In a Select Case or the If Statements you and I both wrote,
: the first case that is met will be the only case that is executed...
: I figure you've already thought of this, but incase you haven't...
:
: happy coding :)
: firesickle.com

Well thanks for the compliment :)

Basically what this program does, at least this bit anyway, is read in one Datfile at a time... It's really only interested in the header... A process I still need to improve to speed up things... It then looks to see if that Datfile header contains one of 11 possible strings (I only showed a couple in my example)... If so then take appropriate action... I didn't originally want to do it this way but unfortunately the Datfile does not use a deliminator between the Manufacturer and System... They are however pretty much constant and should rarely change...

Anyway long story short there is no way for more one case statement, or if statement, to be true for any given Datfile...

Actually just had a thought to help make the program a bit more future proof... Remove those possible strings into a separate text file... Read it in line by line and create an array... say aryManufacturer... Then use a for...next loop to do the check... That way if the Datfiles change in the future, ie add or remove manufacterers, then only a text file change is required to make the program compatible again...

For Each v As String In aryManufacturer
   If strCombined.IndexOf(v) <> -1 Then
      strSearchName = aryManufacterer(v)
      Exit For
   End If
Next

Sorry just thinking out loud :)

I actually have the program well enough for my own purposes... However it would be nice to make it flexible and robust enough to release to those who might need it...

You could bring them into a classic Array, and try and judge how many you will have coming in somehow (by putting an integer value in the top line of you flatfile is my favorite method), or you could try using an ArrayList object (which is a nifty little variable size array object in System.Collections)

So I would read in the list of cases (this is psuedo code, just writing out the concept, if you want to do this and need help I can help you write the code):

Dim Arr as System.Collections.ArrayList

Do While Not EndOfFile
Str = "readLine"
Arr.Add(Str)
Loop

For i as integer = 0 to Arr.Count - 1
  If strCombined.indexOf(DirectCast(Arr.Item(i), String)) > -1 Then
    StrSomething = DirectCast(Arr.Item(i), String)
    Exit For
  End If
Next i