The Weird and The Wonderful

I can't see how it's connected to VB6 (or any language for that matter)...It's a pure human problem...

I'm not questioning your powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is. (V)

No, I think on reflection I will continue to blame VB6. On the plus side, the code so far is not dead awful but it is visibly aged in the approach. No refactoring yet, I've agreed that we'll get it working with as little changes as possible [he laughs] and then look at more robust approaches.

Nagy Vilmos wrote:
robust approaches

Like Format : ?

Microsoft ... the only place where VARIANT_TRUE != true

Actually string handling in VB6 is particularly dire. The "natural" syntax encourages you to build strings from smaller ones, but the implementation just reallocates.

I remember seeing some code building particularly long strings that had exponentially increasing performance time on long input - entirely due to naive string-handling.

There are workarounds, but the language has to take some blame here.

"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."
Alan Kay.

Erm, isn't it the same as natural string handling in C#?

Yes, I do know you should use a StringBuilder, but a new coder would not necessarily know that.

I wrote a very similar routine for Access many years ago, but it's better as it handles special cases like 'Macari' and 'Macy' which this routine would render as 'MacAri ' and 'MacY'

=========================================================
I'm an optoholic - my glass is always half full of vodka.
=========================================================

It still sucks monkey giblets

Here's my monkey giblets! I knew I still had it somewhere

VB

Function Namecase(ByVal Sourcestring As String) As String
    Dim ConvertChar As Integer, Jock As Integer
    Dim StringLength As Integer, loopvar As Integer
    Dim Newstring As String, Nextchar As String
    Dim MacPos As Integer, Maclen As Integer, TestMac As String

    On Error GoTo HandleErr
    'Lowercase the whole string

    StringLength = Len(Sourcestring)
    Sourcestring = LCase$(Sourcestring)

    For loopvar = 1 To StringLength
        'loop through the string letter by letter and
        'Convert the letter to uppercase if it is :-

        'The First Character in the text box
        ConvertChar = (loopvar = 1)

        'or character following space, hypen or apostrophe
        If Not ConvertChar Then ConvertChar = InStr(" -' ", Mid$(Sourcestring, (loopvar - 1), 1))

        ''or first character following a Mc for the Scots amongst us
        '    If Not ConvertChar Then
        '        If loopvar > 2 Then ConvertChar = (Mid$(SourceString, (loopvar - 2), 2) = "mc")
        '    End If

        Nextchar = Mid$(Sourcestring, loopvar, 1)
        If ConvertChar Then        'Convert character to uppercase if it meets the criteria
            Nextchar = UCase$(Nextchar)
        End If
        Newstring = Newstring & Nextchar        'Concatenate to destination
    Next loopvar
    TestMac = "|" & Newstring & "|"
    MacPos = (InStr("|Machin|Macaskill|Mack|Mackie|Macaly|Macy|Mace|Macari|Macley|Macnamara|Mackay|", TestMac))
    Jock = (MacPos = 0)
    If Jock Then
        MacPos = InStr(Newstring, "Mac")
        Maclen = Len(Newstring)
        If MacPos > 0 Then
            Newstring = left$(Newstring, MacPos + 2) & (UCase$(Mid$(Newstring, MacPos + 3, 1)) & right$(Newstring, (Maclen - (MacPos + 3))))
        End If
        MacPos = InStr(Newstring, "Mc")
        If MacPos > 0 Then
            Newstring = left$(Newstring, MacPos + 1) & (UCase$(Mid$(Newstring, MacPos + 2, 1)) & right$(Newstring, (Maclen - (MacPos + 2))))
        End If
    End If
    Namecase = Newstring        'return the completed string

ExitHere:
    Exit Function

    ' Error handling block added by Error Handler Add-In. DO NOT EDIT this block of code.
    ' Automatic error handler last updated at 09-21-2004 10:35:07   'ErrorHandler:$$D=09-21-2004    'ErrorHandler:$$T=10:35:07
HandleErr:
    Select Case Err.Number
        Case Else
            MsgBox "Error " & Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description, vbCritical, "modFunctions.Namecase"        'ErrorHandler:$$N=modFunctions.Namecase
    End Select
    ' End Error handling block.
End Function

=========================================================
I'm an optoholic - my glass is always half full of vodka.
=========================================================

How about McHammer? D'Oh! | :doh:

Wrong is evil and must be defeated.
- Jeff Ello[^]

Stop!

I'm Too Legit to Quit, I Don't Stop until I'm Gaining Momentum. So Feel My Power it's Hammertime.

Wrong is evil and must be defeated.
- Jeff Ello[^]

MacAskill and (definitely) MacNamara look like they are real Macs.

This kind of code just implies your input and/or requirements are crap, though. People should be trusted to type their own name as they want it.

This goes back to a more elegant age where people couldn't use puters.

I have a Scottish friend called Macaskill who definitely does not capitalise internally, and the others were ascertained by looking through the telephone directories of several major British cities, though I think Macnamara[^] is a special special case - some capitalise and some don't

=========================================================
I'm an optoholic - my glass is always half full of vodka.
=========================================================

Glad to see it takes care of MacHine

Well, you have to run that code at the speed of MacH 2.

You thought that code was bad??

How about this[^] little gem, written in C#??

I hate hearing crap about VB being the sole domain of horrible code.

A guide to posting questions on CodeProject

How to debug small programs

Dave Kreskowiak

No, that hurt.

Oh my word.

I'm surprised that CP didn't give an "Out of memory exception" when the OP posted that code. Whew!

There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

As I always say, it ain't the tool that is used that's the problem, but the tool that uses it.

=========================================================
I'm an optoholic - my glass is always half full of vodka.
=========================================================

What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?

Not the sole domain, but a particularly frequent one due to some bad language design decisions.
JavaScript is similarly plagued, and of course one can always create bad code in any language, just some make it the default way of working for many.

"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."
Alan Kay.

Holy crap.

Here's what you do.

Install Strawberry Perl on that machine, and have that function shell out to a perl one-liner. It'll still be more efficient and less dain bramaged.

mikepwilson wrote:
Install Strawberry Perl

No, I don't think so...

mikepwilson wrote:
less dain bramaged

you were saying? Laugh | :laugh: