asked on

How to write to high and low bytes of an element in a widestring

Hi,
I think this is an easy if you know how question. How do you write to the
high and low bytes of an element in a widestring array individually.

If you know of a way to convert strings to widestings without adding on an extra
00 byte to each character and just kind of "cramming the bytes" in then that would be just as good.

Thanks

David

Lischke

Hi,

for converting a string to a wide string just use an assigment. Delphi will take care about the conversion:

var
S: String;
WS: String;

begin
S := 'Hallo';
WS := S;
// WS contains now a valid wide string
end;

Ciao, Mike

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dlking

ASKER

hi,
thanks a lot for your help

Bye

Lischke

KE,

to 1): "If you know of a way to convert strings to widestings without adding on an extra
00 byte to each character and just kind of "cramming the bytes" in then that would be just as good."
--> I did this and so your point 1) is superfluous.

to 2) This kind of casting is superfluous as I have shown in my comment and you can easily follow by looking at the disassembly view while executing string code.

to 3) What's all this good for? Please, write a little demo program and look at the CPU window. Writing:

var
S: WideString;

begin
S := 'Blah';
S := S + 'Blah';
end;

results in this code sequence:

:
call @WStrAsgn
:
call @WStrCat
:
call @WStrClr

show it is simple nonsense what you wrote.

Please, be so kind and use COMMENTS instead of answers in particular if you either only repeat already given suggestions/solutions and/or if you aren't unsure and have not verified your own suggestion!

Ciao, Mike

Lischke

dlking,

WHAT ABOUT MY HELP???

dlking

ASKER

hi lischke,

I tried your suggestion but as i thought
it does add extra bytes. I think perhaps my question was not clear enough

what i wanted to do was to take a string of the form ( in bytes)

$a2 $67 $a3 $45

and create a widestring with exactly the same sequence ie not

$a2 $00 $67 $00 $a3 $00 $45 $00

which delphi does when it converts to
widestring.
At least my delphi 3 does.

Thanks though for your help and i'll try
and be clearer with my questions in future

Bye

Lischke

Okay, but why did you then accept KE's answer which has nothing to do with your problem? For your problem you could esily use:

var
Buffer: array[0..1024] of Byte;
S: WideString;

begin
ReadBytesIntoBuffer(Buffer);
S := PWideChar(@Buffer);
end;

Quite easy, huh? :-)

Ciao, Mike

dlking

ASKER

Hi,
KE's answer was useful - i did want to know how to manipulate the bytes etc
in the way he showed me. Your solution
above is also useful and tidier for the
actual string conversion so thats some points i owe you....

Thanks Again

David

Mike, I'm glad that you are watching me over the shoulder, but is it possible to do it a little more quiet ?

I've worked a LOT with WideStrings, actually from D3 and up. D3 and D4 did not handle WideStrings correctly so that's why I wrote these "idiot proof" typecasting's.

Load up your D3 (or D4) and try this example:

ws: WideString;
ws := some_wide_string_containing_TRUE_widechars
ws := ws + 'flaming out';

What you will get is a WideString where all TRUE widechars are converted to questionmarks = '?' = $2E as they would be in a normal WideString to String conversion.

However if you do as I describe:
ws := ws + WideString('flaming out');

your widestring will be CORRECTLY concatenated and contain it's original WideChars intact...

This is (what you may call) a BUG in the older versions...

BTW. This is the the first part of the question...
"How do you write to the high and low bytes of an element in a widestring array individually"
Where the HELL is your answer to that ???

And SORRY that I posted my comment as an answer - As I started on writing my answer I didn't see your comment, since it wasn't posted at that time - and I have to admit that I don't press refresh before submit - do you ?

Regards

PS. When I speak of TRUE WideChars I mean characters that is not within the bounds of a normal char.

PPS. I also think you are overreacting...

dlking

ASKER

Lischke

KE, you may have right in many aspects here (in particular regarding overreaction), but the main problem is that you actually posted an ANSWER! There are only two cases when I post an answer. One is for questions like "How many is 2 + 2?" and the other is the questioneer requests it. How does it make sense to discuss questions if there's already an answer telling all other: "get out of here, I found this one first, this is mine, mine, mine"?

Proposing an answer should totally be disabled as it causes often frustration (not only for me :-)) and with the "accept comment as answer" option all what's needed is there. I'll suggest that to the EE stuff...

I have tried what you wrote regarding string casts with D4 and D5. Neither shows any unusual behaviour nor does they need explicit type casts, so the problem you mentioned might be caused by bugs in D3 and earlier.

Unfortunately, David didn't mention the Delphi version he's using, so it seems we both are true with our stuff. We had, though, discuss this normally if you hadn't proposed an answer in the first place...

Ciao, Mike

dlking

ASKER

Lischke

David, don't use the refresh button of your browser or you'll resend your last comment. There's a link "Reload Question" at the top of this page. Use this one instead :-)

Ciao, Mike

Lische I agree that I shouldn't post my answer as the very first thing - you are right I should have posted a comment. Believe it or not, I normally do this. However I may have seen this question as a "2+2", since I've worked so much with WideStrings and especially BUGS concerning these. I'll try to remember not to post my answers so quickly as it will also leave other's out of the discussion - this is especially a problem if you give wrong answers - so I'm sorry.

Still, I think my answer is more complete than your's so I might have got the points anyway ;-)

Anyway, I can transfer the point to you, as I'm not here for the points - only for the excitement.

Regards

PS. No hard feelings - OK !

Lischke

Hi KE,

now that we cleared that I'm feeling much better :-) Okay, in this case you gave what was needed but often an (wrong) answer is given before even a discussion started and that's not the kind EE is working nor should it.

Ciao, Mike

PS: No need to transfer any points to me...