Simtel MSDOS 1992 September/Simtel20_Sept92.cdr/msdos/filutl/filscrub.arc/FILSCRUB.DOC

Text File | 1987-02-18 | 9KB | 463 lines

                            FILSCRUB





            A table driven search and replace utility






                 Copyright 1987 by Gary Elfring

                      4N899 West Mary Drive
                  St. Charles, Illinois  60174












































                        TABLE OF CONTENTS



INTRODUCTION .................................................. 1



SHAREWARE NOTICE .............................................. 2



OPERATION ..................................................... 3



TABLE FILES ................................................... 3



FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS ........................................... 5










































       FILSCRUB table driven search and replace utility


                          INTRODUCTION

FILSCRUB  is a table driven search and replace utility.  You make
up  a  table  of text or characters to search  for  and  what  to
replace  those characters with.   FILSCRUB will look through your
input file for every occurrence of the first search entry.   Each
time  it  is  found it will be replaced with  the  first  replace
entry.   When  the end of the input file is found  FILSCRUB  will
move on to the next search entry (if any) in your table.

FILSCRUB  will work on ASCII or binary files.   It uses the exact
file length and does not pay any attention to the control-Z (EOF)
marker.   Search and replace strings can be any length up to  127
characters,  and  may  be described in ASCII,  decimal,  or  hex.
FILSCRUB  does  not affect your original input file in  any  way.
There  is no limit on the length of the input file or the  number
of search and replace operations to perform.

FILSCRUB can be used for many purposes.   It can easily find  all
special  control  characters  in a text file and change  them  to
something else.   Having problems with one word processor's  out-
put?  Clean it up with FILSCRUB.

FILSCRUB  can also be used to translate information from one form
to  another.   FILSCRUB works sequentially through  a  file.   It
performs  one  search and replace operation at  a  time,  working
sequentially through your table.  This gives FILSCRUB the ability
to literally translate one form of text to another.




























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       FILSCRUB table driven search and replace utility


                            SHAREWARE

This program is provided on a "shareware" basis!  Try the program
out. If you don't like it- erase it. If you do like it I hope you
will  send  in  your contribution.  I am requesting  a  shareware
contribution of $25.00.   In addition,  I would appreciate it  if
you would send comments or bugs to my attention at:


Gary Elfring
4N899 West Mary Drive
St. Charles, Illinois, 60174


PLEASE mention the product name, (FILSCRUB), and where you got it
from.  You  will then receive:  telephone support,  and one  free
update  with improved documentation.  Only registered users  will
receive notices of improvements and the one free update!

Note  that  the next version of FILSCRUB will have a  new  option
that allows matches on ASCII text regardless of text case.


                            WARRANTY

NONE!!  No warranty is provided to anyone who has not contributed
for  this program.  Gary Elfring specifically disclaims all other
warranties,  expressed or implied,  including but not limited to,
implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a  particu-
lar purpose with respect to defects in the disk or documentation,
and  the program license granted herein.  In no event shall  Gary
Elfring  be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial
damage,  including but not limited to special, incidental, conse-
quential, or other damages.






















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       FILSCRUB table driven search and replace utility


                            OPERATION

To run FILSCRUB you need a text file to "scrub", a table of items
to search for along with the text to replace those items,  and an
output file name.  To run type:


filscrub table input output


Where: "table" is the name of a disk file containing at least one
search and one replace string,  "input" is the name of your orig-
inal  text file,  and "output" is the name of the disk  file  the
results will be saved in.   All disk file names may include drive
specifiers and path names.

No  assumptions are made about the input or output  files.   They
may be ASCII or binary.   The "table" file MUST be an ASCII file.
See the section below on table files for more details.

Once  invoked,  FILSCRUB will print a copyright notice and a ver-
sion number.   The program will then begin working.   The program
will read your text file once and thereafter work with  temporary
copies of it until the final "scrubbed" version is complete.

While  FILSCRUB is running it will be working with four different
files.   Three  of these are your "table",  "input",  and  output
files.   A fourth file,  "scrub.wrk", will be created by FILSCRUB
for  intermediate work.   This file will be erased when  FILSCRUB
completes  it operation.   Note that FILSCRUB requires  TWICE  as
much free disk space as your input file consumes.  This is due to
the  output and work files.   Also note that if you search for  a
large  number  of small strings and then replace them  with  much
longer strings, more disk space will be required!


                           TABLE FILES

The  table driven approach of FILSCRUB makes it a powerful  tool.
However,  all table files MUST be written in ASCII!  If your text
editor  can  not produce an ASCII file you must use  another  one
that does.  (Much as I hate it you can use EDLINE that comes with
MS-DOS.)

How  do you know if your text editor produces ASCII  files?   Try
using the MS-DOS TYPE command.  If you can type out your files on
the  screen,  with  no strange characters,  your editor is  using
straight ASCII.

Each table file consists of matching pairs of search and  replace
strings.  The text to search for (or replace with) can be written
in ASCII, decimal, or hex.  All search and replace lines follow a
standard format.   A line in your table file always begins with a
letter  specifying whether the text to follow is ASCII,  decimal,


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       FILSCRUB table driven search and replace utility


or hex.   A second letter must follow specifying whether this  is
the  search  or replace string.   Finally,  a space or  tab  must
separate you text from the initial two characters.

Some  examples will probably help at this point.   To search  for
the word 'hello' and replace it with 'xxxxxxxx' you would enter:

as hello
ar xxxxxxxx

The "as" stands for ASCII search.   The second line is the match-
ing  replace  string (ar = ASCII replace).   Suppose you need  to
search for two words?  Try:

as "good bye"
ar good-bye

FILSCRUB  will automatically detect beginning and  ending  quotes
and use all text in between as the search string.

There  are  a lot of different characters that can not be  easily
described  in ASCII.   So FILSCRUB allows entry in either hex  or
decimal.   To  look for a control-A and change it into  the  word
Control-A try:

hs 01
ar Control-A

If  you like decimal it works the same way.   To search for  AAAA
and replace it with "4As" enter:

ds 65 65 65 65
ar 4As

The only limit on decimal, hex, and ASCII entries is that no line
in the table can be longer than 127 characters.

For more complicated work you can use multiple table entries.  To
change  all references from "hello" to "HELLO" and all references
from "HELLO" to "hello", (reverse the order of these words), try:

as hello
ar xxxxx
as HELLO
ar hello
as xxxxx
ar HELLO

When running with this table,  FILSCRUB changes all references to
"hello"  to "xxxxx" first.   Then all references to  "HELLO"  are
changed  to lower case.   Finally,  the original lower case hello
(now saved as "xxxxx") is changed into upper case.




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       FILSCRUB table driven search and replace utility


                       FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS

The  next  release of FILSCRUB will offer control  of  case  when
searching  for an ASCII string.   (Assuming enough people support
this  product as shareware.)  This will allow you  to  optionally
match "HELLO" with "hello".  The table for for this will be:

asc hello
ar xxxxxxxx

In  this case all occurrences of the word "hello",  regardless of
text case, will be replaced with "xxxxxxxx".

Other  improvements may be made depending upon your  suggestions.
Please send me your comments.









































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