Comments by AlwaysLearningNewStuff (Top 200 by date)

It is auto-generated by the ATL wizard. Will it help you if I add it in the post (I tried to keep it as brief as possible, that's why I omitted it) ?

After thinking about it, I must agree with you. Should I delete my post, since it seems to be useless?

After thinking about it, I must agree with you. Should I delete my post, since it seems to be useless?

But what if an application connects to the database? How will it know which units are used? That is actually my primary concern...

Thank you for commenting. Oh and I have fixed the typo... Thanks for correction!

Let me get this straight: the only options I have are to Clone the brush or recreate it again?

I have scattered breakpoints all over the code. Watching the xpsStrokeBrush variable, it never changed it's value ( after its creation in code ).

I have tried releasing the brush and recreating it again with the same values, before entering problematic section in my code. That worked, there was no crash anymore...

It seems that problem lies elsewhere... Thanks for trying to help...

I'm afraid to ask, but don't you expect that changing of the language tag will somehow miraculously cause automatic translation of English tooltips into German?

Yes! Isn't that what documentation for xml:lang and Language states?

If you set it to "de-DE" then Language changes from default English to German, then tooltips should change from English to German, right?

Did you even think about it, really?

I am having other responsibilities/problems, both in programming and personal life, so I am in a heavy time crunch.

Furthermore, I am new to WPF so I do not know in which direction to think.

I have listed all my attempts/research done to solve the problem. At this point, it is the most effort I can invest.

Think at this: what does it mean, "set language to German"? What?

I really have no time for guessing games, due to reasons I wrote above.

I thought I was asking for a simple thing, which should be easily done in 2 lines of code.

I just want DocumentViewer to have German tooltips, nothing more. I have never dreamed that it would be this difficult to find a solution...

I have no control of the DocumentViewer, I need to set its language to German so its children can pick it up too.

I want DocumentViewer's toolbar and searchbox to have German tooltips.

I still don't understand your comment, if it was meant to be a solution.

Can you simply show me how to do what I have asked?

What "setting language to German" is supposed to do?

I am trying to set the language of the DocumentViewer to German, so its toolbar and searchbox can display text in their tooltips on German.

I'm just curious, what do you want to achieve with that property.

I am new to WPF, so after doing some research I found that property.

It should change the language of the control, at least that is how I understood it from reading the official documentation.

So far, you were just trying to read, not set anything...

I apologize for my ignorance, but as I have said earlier, I am very new to WPF.

Thank you for trying to help, I highly appreciate it.

I am creating document viewer in code, while your suggestion seems to refer to document viewer created in XAML.

Still, I have created document viewer in XAML and tried to set the language as explained in the links you provided. No progress, it still kept English.

I have copy/pasted your suggestion (myDocumentViewer.Language = "<object xml:lang='de-DE'/>") in my code behind, but it did not compile.

again, thank you for trying to help.

It's that I just cannot spend too much time on it at this time, sorry

No problem, I understand really.

And I believe you can dig things out.

By now you know I have done my research first, before asking. It is just not as easy to find as it seems.

If I'm not much mistaken, I had to play the metafile to zoom it, probably to another instance of metafile, something like that; and zoom/pan was pretty trivial.

I have managed to do the scrolling / panning with the mouse, zooming part is the biggest problem though...

If you manage to find that old project you mentioned earlier please let me know.

And for the record: from now on I only work in C# and .NET! Lesson learned, sadly the hard way!

Sadly, it seems so. I know there is no one who can help me but I had to try. Thank you honestly for trying, I wish you could do more. Best regards. :(

You are not agitating me, I have always highly appreciated your answers/comments/criticism, but at this moment I can not afford to start from scratch, that is the problem :(

At this moment, the app is nearly done. I just can not start from scratch in C#, that is the problem. BTW it is not MFC but pure WinAPI. I am not allowed to use libraries, please understand that I have no saying about this, it is imposed upon me. I will try to make your idea with XAML work... Thanks.

Best regards.

I would be curious to know why wasting so much time on knowingly complicated (I would say, perverted), closed, proprietary and obsolete vector graphics technology?

Why not using something else, to be able to skip this part and go forward?

Pure WinAPI uses EMF and bitmap, there is no other way as far as I know. I may not use external libraries. What other choice do I have?

I am fine with this being non-standard behavior. I just wish if I could somehow implement it...

Hey, what's up? It has been a while...

I need help with the following problem: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29681409/resume-dragging-listview-item-after-user-moves-mouse-from-scrollbar-into-client

There is the same post here on CP...

I apologize for disturbing, but I truly believe you too can find solution to that problem usefull for you.

Will you try to help? I must warn you beforehand, it seems so hard to me, maybe it can not even be solved...

Best regards, I hope the weather is getting better there as it gets here!

I actually have only access to Win 7 Pro 64 bit machines and it is running on those. I have tested it on Windows 8 and it works fine.

Still, I was not able to rearrange items in the listview, only to drag them to edit control. I am trying to rearrange items in the listview only, I do not need to drag them into another window/control, so I wonder if using OLE is an overkill...

Anyway, I will study your code in hope to figure out how to rearrange listview items ( with implemented autoscrolling, as described in my post ).

Best regards until we hear again, and thank you for your help.

Just started it.

When I try your demo app it hangs... I have tested it on Windows 7 x86, if this info matters... Article seems awesome, but I can not make your demo app work on my laptop...

Listview notifications do not help. Hit testing is the problem. LVM_HITTEST returns LVHT_NOWHERE no matter in which handler I perform hit testing.

When can I free the library? Can I do it immediately after mCursor = LoadCursor(oleMod, MAKEINTRESOURCE(6)); or just before my program exits ( just below message loop)?

BTW, I really could use help with the following issue: http://www.codeproject.com/Questions/885784/Cant-get-LVHT-ABOVE-LVHT-BELOW-LVHT-TORIGHT-LVHT-T?arn=0

Best regards.

That code has serious flaw when user selects multiple items, as was reported in one of the messages. I have managed to write my own code that seems to remedy the problem. I just want to remove variable that detects dragging, hence this question.

Thanks for answering.

Study the MFC COleDropTarget::OnDragScroll source to see how it is basically implemented. I was not able to find it. All I found was MSDN documentation for it. It is virtual function, as you have said, so no example was available there...

If you are interested I can help you with using OLE. I am actually studying OLE on my own, so yes, I am interested. I have read Raymond Chen's blogs on the topic, so this may help us "speed up" the process.

CView derived classes are prepared for drag & drop support including scrolling. I do not know MFC, if that is what you refer to. If you refer to a class that implements OLE interfaces I will gladly give it a try.

Thank you. Voted 5. Best regards until next time.

Sadly, this message adds new item into treeview, the documentation states it clearly.

I have tried something on my own but have failed to succeed...

The more and more I work with this, the more and more I wish to switch to C# and .NET...

If you are 100# sure your approach can work, please help me with some pseudo code or something similar. As always, I will keep trying to solve this on my own...

I am trying to do it right now. I have no idea how to do this. Can you advise me? Thank you for commenting, it is good to "hear: you after such a long time.

Best regards.

Been there too, no luck -> it is completely undocumented. :(

It did work, but it does not group thousands. I really need this functionality. I could use your solution to bet the string, but I do not know any function that formats it properly. Can you suggest one, since you are more experienced and better programmer than I am? Thank you for your help.

That was the first thing I did :)

It is completely undocumented in ADO reference, but I know it exists because intelisense offers it as an option when I type pRS->Fields->GetItem(L"Iznos")->

pRS->Fields->GetItem(L"Iznos")->DataFormat;

It is a Field property that is undocumented in ADO reference.

What is unclear about my post?

Exactly what I did. Hoped to bypass this approach but it seems there is no other way...

Thank you so much! I need to learn a lot of new things so I will need time before I report my results. Hopefully I will manage to fix the problem using your code as a reference...

If you have any problems writing this code, feel free to ask me.. I do have the problem writing that code because I am very new to C# and .NET, all I did so far are simple single threaded GUI apps. No multithreading was involved.

I doubt you will be willing to edit your answer with a concrete illustrative code, so I ask you to give me as much detailed instructions as possible if that is not too much of a trouble for you.

Thank you for your help. Best regards.

It seems you "come" from JAVA No I don't, I was studying JAVA on my own long time ago, so I remembered that method can throw an exception. I thought the same can be done in C#...

Thank you for your help. I kind of feared of this and hoped that I made a mistake somewhere... It seems that it is Microsoft's implementation...

I saw your answer and I agree with you => my approach will fail, sadly.

If there was only a way to let the exception "bubble up" ( in that thread ) and catch it in GUI thread...

Thank you for helping.

Yes, as I have said in my post, it happens in background thread. Do you have a Connect() without the Begin No, there is no such option. Does it have an event for errors? No, I haven't found one.

It only has IsConnected property ( bool type). I am trying to adjust emulator for internet access at the moment. That way I could test if mentioned property is true or false, which would solve my problem.

I will update my post with newest findings as soon as I can.

Thank you for helping out. Best regards until we "hear" again.

I think everything will work out fine with the design from that site. As said before, he transformed your words into image. I have officially accepted your answer and voted 5.

If you have any suggestions for improvement please feel free to point them out.

Best regards.

What will you do it, by some reason, later you would need to introduce Annex #3?

Well, that is what New Annex and other corresponding buttons are for -> they add annex #3/report #3 to the contract.

Checkboxes were "solution" for a problem answerer pointed out in his post.

I hope I understood you well ( no offense, but your English is little confusing in that last comment ).

Anyway, the answerer on that site transformed your advice into image. I see no reason not to oficialy accept your answer, just give me time to deal with that missing DELETE option he forgot to add.

Best regards!

Mr.Kryukov, look at the answer on the link below, it is almost what I need:

http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/70312/improve-design-for-master-detail-interface

With a few tweaks here and there, and adding DELETE option answer omitted, I think it could be great solution to my problem. Also, image is worth 1000 words, so that sketch can help you realize where my confusion lies.

Best regards and thank you sincerely for your readiness to wholeheartedly help.

I just don't understand fully what you said.

I will try to formulate a meaningful question after giving your comment thorough thought...

I did not know what a single window represent; I apologize for confusion.

I just wanted to show existing contracts into treeview, the same way you advised me to do for single one. I must be able to somehow edit those existing data. That would be the role of the buttons in the middle of the window.

That seems to be my problem -> to organize buttons for new contract and other stuff into coherent group.

When you get the time and if you want, you could carefully read my post again and try to help.

As always I will try to handle this on my own.

Best regards.

Thank you for answering. I have a little doubt if I understood you correct.

What you suggest is to move treeview to the left ( I agree with you on this one ) and use it to represent one contract with its annexes/reports if they exist. Then user could click on the contract/annex/report node and load it into tab control for editing. Tab control would be adjusted according to the selected node ( polymorphism, as you said ). I agree with this approach as well.

My follow up questions are these:

How would I present the list of existing contracts to the user, so he can choose one?
Should I use combobox, and if yes, where should I put it?

What about adding new contract, where should I put that button ( or any other control you would suggest )?

How should user add new annex/report to the existing/new contract?

To sum it up, my problem is generally based on layout design.

I hope this makes sense to you. If I need to further clarify please leave a comment.

In case we don't "speak" soon, I wish you happy New Year and marry Christmas ( I assume you are Orthodox Christian ).

Best regards Mr.Kryukov.

Thank you for trying to help. I have browsed through all the links you provided but was not able to find a case I need. I just need a close button in tab, like in the image from my post. Unfortunately, all the links deal with owner drawn tabs but none adds close button to the tab control...

The point is to completely remove the maximize box, not to disable it... Thank you for answering though.

Thank you for helping. The code is in C#, but I get the point. I was hoping to bypass that route but seems that it is the only way to go...

Everything works fine. I had to add another field that stores the name and extension of the file. When loading the file from database, I read binary data and add the stored name. Then file opens correctly. The following link explains everything: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27234746/insert-raw-file-data-into-blob-ole-object-field-of-access-table-using-ado

Notice that I used ADO streams instead of AppendChunk/GetChunk, but the solution is the same. As answerer stated, OLE wrapper is not the same thing as storing raw BLOB into database. Thank you for your help.Best regards. +5

You should NOT insert a file into the db. Best practice ins saving files is to give them a unique name (UUID-like) and store them in a special folder, somewhere on the db-server. You must also save the original file name. I agree, but my bosses insist...

The error in your code is on the use of VT_UI1 and the size of 1.
Tried it your way and still nothing get written into database :(

I have tried to adapt your code but have failed to succeed. I have never used variants and safe arrays before, so that might be the problem.

I have added the smallest possible code snippet below of what I have tried.

Test database has 1 table test and 2 fields ID, which is primary key, and field which is of OLE Object type.

Please correct my mistakes if that is not much of a trouble for you ( error checking is omitted ) :

wchar_t *bstrConnect = L"Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0; \
Data Source = C:\\Users\\Smiljkovic85\\Desktop\\OLE.accdb";

try
{
HRESULT hr = CoInitialize(NULL);

// connection
ADODB::_ConnectionPtr pConn(L"ADODB.Connection");
// recordset
ADODB::_RecordsetPtr pRS(L"ADODB.Recordset");

// connect to DB
hr = pConn->Open(bstrConnect, L"admin", L"", ADODB::adConnectUnspecified);

// open file
std::ifstream in(L"C:\\Users\\Smiljkovic85\\Desktop\\Kings Indian Atack.pdf",
std::ios::ate | std::ios::binary);

// get file size
LONG fileSize = in.tellg();

// here I tried to apply your code
pRS->Open(L"test", _variant_t((IDispatch*)pConn, true),
ADODB::adOpenKeyset, ADODB::adLockOptimistic, ADODB::adCmdTable);
// add new record
pRS->AddNew();

_variant_t varChunk;

SAFEARRAY FAR *psa;
SAFEARRAYBOUND rgsabound[1];
rgsabound[0].lLbound = 0;
// modify to our file size
rgsabound[0].cElements = fileSize;
psa = SafeArrayCreate(VT_UI1, 1, rgsabound);

//=================== tried this as well but no luck...
char *chData = (char *)psa->pvData;
chData = new char[fileSize];
in.read(chData, fileSize);

======================== */
char *chData = new char[fileSize];
in.read(chData, fileSize);

BYTE* pData;
SafeArrayAccessData(psa, (void **)&pData);
memcpy(pData, chData, fileSize);
SafeArrayUnaccessData(psa);

// Assign the Safe array to a variant.
varChunk.vt = VT_ARRAY | VT_UI1;
varChunk.parray = psa;

pRS->Fields->GetItem(L"field")->AppendChunk(varChunk);
// add this record into DB
pRS->Update();

// cleanup
delete[] chData;
in.close();
pRS->Close();
pConn->Close();
CoUninitialize();
}
catch (_com_error e)
{
MessageBox(hWnd, (LPWSTR)e.Description(), L"", 0);
}

}


I apologize for taking me too long to respond but I really tried to fix this on my own...

EDIT:
----

I have searched here for help and two posts that gave me an idea. Still none of my solutions work. You can see them in the above code snippet, in the comments.

What I get now, is the following error: a problem occurred while microsoft access was communicating with the ole server or activex control in MS Access. I have searched online for solution but had no luck, every link claims it has to do with access and not with the code.

Best regards.

Thanks for answering. I have changed my code per your instructions but get the same effect...

You know I always do my homework. I have found this message but don;t know how to apply it in my case. Maybe I am doing something wrong since it is my first time... Can you edit the WM_SIZE handler to demonstrate its proper usage? I am sorry for being pushy but I need to finish this by Tuesday morning and am panicking... Thanks for helping as always, if I ever come to Australia I will PM to share a keg of bear! Best regards.

It seems that this is not the end of my struggle with visual styles as I believed... Not to mention flickering... At this moment I feel so powerless that am about to cry :(

Can you please try to help me?

Thank you so much! I am in a mess currently as I must design the GUI for the app that uses this code so please give me time ( I have to find a way to place 50+ controls on a single form -> madness, but one can't argue with the boss ). Best regards.

I have edited my post with new image. This time there are labels describing the control's function. Unfortunately, that thing "next to each other" is a demand from boss, I can't change it right now. I might try and talk her into some sense but chances are small :(

It appears to the unarmed eye that multiline and payment areas can grow infinitely. Only MULTILINE, as those will be multiline edit controls or RichEdit controls, I don't know yet... Payment has 5 checkboxes and that's all...

As for "next to each other" constraint, I am trying to figure out how to make it happen with modeless dialog boxes. That way user can place both windows next to each other. It could make my life easier by simply using listview to display the multiple Annexes and Construction contracts. All I shoud do then is implement edit/delete/add to the listview. I am aiming to make it consistent with Windows feel but it will not be easy...

What do you think of this approach?

Thanks again for helping, best regards Mr. Kryukov.

I think we misunderstood each other. Let us say Contract has ABCDEF, then Annex has the same attributes. If Dynamics had xyz, then this would be an example from "real life" :

Contract :

A = BlaBla
B = 123,34
C = BC-123
...

Dynamics ( for this Contract ) :

x = 444.54
y = Some Investor Name
z = 444

Annex ( for this Contract ) :

A = YapYap
B = 668, 99
C = ANX-61
...

Dynamics ( for this Annex ) :

x = 123. 55
y = Some Other Name for Investor
z = 990

Just because table schema for Contract and Annex is the same, doesn't mean the values of those fields will be the same.

If I understood your example right, I would lose DEF values for Contract if I do remove those fields from that table.

If I misunderstood you, please correct me.

Thank you again. Best regards.

I have trouble figuring out how to implement your suggestion. Still, I think I will "go that way" because it seems so efficient and easy to maintain...

I have learned how to create tabbed dialog box. I am now trying to create editable listview ( with combo boxes and other controls ). If I manage somehow to achieve this, I would successfully implement nearly all of your advices and would be able to update my post with screenshots of my new GUI. Then I could officially accept your answer and vote 5 :)

Hopefully I will be able to succeed in my quest...

I have solved the problem using EnableThemeDialogTexture in child dialog's WM_INITDIALOG. The problem was in moving pages as soon as I created them. Tab control resizes itself each tim you add an item, so that was the cause of my problem. I have inserted all the items first, and only then added pages and everything worked fine.

You can take a look at the small code example from this CP question:

http://www.codeproject.com/Questions/841750/Cant-reposition-page-child-dialog-box-to-fit-tab-c?arn=0

Thanks for helping!

Best regards.

BTW, you'll have to do an adjustRect, movewindow for all children after each insert (or once after a block insert), because the tabControl header resizes after itself each insertion Good to know this, I have performed resizing and moving after inserting all the items.

Off topic, where did you get this info? I tried searching online but couldn't find anything...

Thanks again, 5ed as promised - you earned it really!

Best regards :)

I have refined m code per your instructions and it seems that everything works!

I will edit my question with the relevant portion of the reworked code. Meanwhile, if you post your comment as an answer I will officially accept it and vote 5!

Thank you so much!

Best regards.

I am having success displaying dialog boxes as tab pages and switching between them on tab switch.

I just have problem with child dialog's background when visual styles are on ( on Windows XP ). It doesn't match properly. On StackOverflow I got an advice to resize every dialog box to tab client area, so brushes match. I gave my best with ScreenToClient and <clienttoscreen code=""> but failed to achieve the proper result. Would you help me if I update my post here on CP with small code that reproduces the problem?

I apologize for disturbing, but I really have no idea how to solve this :(

Best regards 'till next time.

I had those options in mind ( property sheet and wizards ). Being inexperienced with these, I don't know if I could do this without them by creating them on my own in ResEdit... Thanks for the tips, if you get any other ideas please leave a comment. I have thrown in a bounty on UX SE so maybe I will get lucky. Maybe something will popup... Best regards.

Thank you for your help. I will need time to fully grasp your concepts and read that manual, before officially accepting the answer. Please be patient. I will try and update my post with images of my new design so we can confirm that I understood you right. Until we hear again, best regards.

I know a very good online manual of design, short, irregular, but striking in its simplicity and unclouded views of things. I can understand your language just a bit. Is it possible that you could read and understand it in Russian? At least I could reference some pieces. Russian and Serbian share some similarities but in the long run I doubt I could understand it. Still, it is worth a shot. I might find someone who speaks Russian to try and translate it...

Yes, I must agree that the look of your screenshot is horrible. Most repelling flaws, spoiling some 95% of the picture, are not related to your question. As you probably know me just a little bit, I'm just curious: can you guess what are they? Just two? I cannot spend much time at this moment, but I'll read it all a bit later and try to reply. No I can't, but those group boxes and that map are so unnecessary that it drives me insane...

Generally, property sheets is a good idea...
Just one thing: I don't want to discuss C++ and MFC and pure Windows API UI. I know pretty well how it works, and that's why I consider it really crazy, to develop real-life UI using them. I would better limit discussion to pure design, which is always possible to implement, one way or another... Couldn't agree more. I have started learning C# and .NET but I don't have enough skill to rewrite the graphical part of this app. Once I get those skills I will never "fight" winapi again :)

We can discuss the concept and design, there is no reason for both of us to suffer with winapi :)

Best regards :)

Thank you for sparing some time to help me, I highly appreciate it.

I have trouble understanding your solution because I am inexperienced. Although you did apply your solution on my above example, I still can't fully grasp what you did.

Can you provide some tutorials or other online resources in your reply to this comment that could help me realize what you did?

Maybe you could elaborate your post with additional info that could help me understand your solution?

If you need specific info on what I am not understanding leave me a comment and I will provide it.

Best regards.

Thank you for sparing some time to help me, I highly appreciate it.

I have some trouble fully understanding your solution because I am inexperienced. The example I have mentioned in my post is quite simple in my opinion. Can you edit your post with tables that illustrate your solution on that example? It would help me a lot to draw correct conclusions and would greatly reduce the chance for me to misunderstand your post.

Meanwhile, I will use Google to learn more about "variable entities".

Best regards.

I have experimented a little, it seems that edit's font size must be less than listview's font size by 3 ( sorry for bad English, to be clear editfont = listfont - 3 ). It seems that this gives the best results...

Off-topic, can you help me with following problem : http://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/80360/cant-finish-my-er-diagram

I know I am a pain, but this issue puzzles me for 2 days...

Thank you.

Best regards 'till next time ( I will keep working on this font problem ).

Thank you, I assumed you were busy. Take your time, I have thrown in a bounty on SO but so far no success :(

I can understand some of your idea, but can't create a demo app. Still, I will give this a look carefully over next few days.

In some of the examples I have noticed that edit control / combobox / etc were bigger than the cell.

I wanted to create a reusable code for the future, but maybe I should just set cell size to the size of combobox /edit / etc, and make those controls ( combo + edit + etc ) the same height... Perhaps that is the least painful solution, as I really doubt I will get anything better than I already have :(

Anyway, thank you so much! Best regards :)

I have found many links, but ha chosen few of them in order not to waste your time. Here they are:

http://www.codeguru.com/cpp/controls/listview/reports/article.php/c4155/Customized-Report-List-Control-with-InPlace-Combo-Box--Edit-Control.htm

http://www.codeguru.com/cpp/controls/listview/columns/article.php/c4169/How-to-Easily-Navigate-and-Edit-a-List-View-Control.htm

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816188

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320344

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/28478/How-to-edit-listview-subitems-in-Win

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/3225/TreeListView

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/9188/Embedding-Controls-in-a-ListView

I know you must be busy so take your time. I will continue to work on my own as well.

Good luck!

Thanks, I highly appreciate it!

I have found some examples in MFC and C# but don't know how to convert them into C/C++ and raw WinAPI. If you need inspiration I could post the links somewhere so you can take a look...

I am continuing to try and find the solution on my own, hopefully my light bulb will fire up soon :)

Best regards mate :)

Thank you for the kind words. I appreciate highly people who spare their free time and provide high quality answer for free, so I try to repay them by atleast asking useful question that is properly phrased. I consider this the least I can do.

Again, thank you for taking time to try helping me. Best regards Mr. Kryukov.

IIRC, the edit control likes to be bigger that the selected font height. Yes indeed. I have asked here at StackOverflow for help and got a workaround by setting the same font for edit control / combobox / checkbox and listview: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25895351/window-size-of-edit-control-combobox-is-not-properly-adjusted-when-using-movewin/25896947?noredirect=1#comment40534680_25896947

Still, I would like to have combobox / edit control / checkbox the same size as listview cell...

Thank you for your time and for trying to help.

Best regards.

The docs for MoveWindow and SetWindowPos claim otherwise. I have tested your claim with MoveWindow( GetDlgItem( hWnd, 1500 ), 10, 50, 50, 80, TRUE ); and window was properly resized, so I state that your observation is false. Can you suggest another solution?

Thank you for sparing some time to help. Best regards Mr.Kryukov!

My pardon for disturbing, but I am facing an interesting problem regarding printing in WinAPI. I have searched online for a solution, but nothing came out ( despite my high expectations for successfully solving it on my own ). Can you please take a look at the following question:

http://www.codeproject.com/Questions/791103/Calculate-ideal-font-size-based-on-the-paper-size?loginkey=false

Thank you.

My pardon for disturbing, but I am facing an interesting problem regarding printing in WinAPI. I have searched online for a solution, but nothing came out despite my high expectations for successfully solving it on my own. Can you please take a look at the following question:

http://www.codeproject.com/Questions/791103/Calculate-ideal-font-size-based-on-the-paper-size?loginkey=false

Thank you.

By a "dummy font", I mean to hardcode some height as a starting one. Then I would select that font into DC and do the testing. If the result is not good, then I would adjust the size of the font, and recreate the font with proper size. Then I would select the proper font into DC. Something like this:

long fontHeight = -MulDiv( 14, GetDeviceCaps( hdc, LOGPIXELSY, 72 );

HFONT font = CreateFont( fontHeight, ... );
HFONT oldFont = SelectObject( hdc, font );

// do the testing

//if fails calculate the proper size
// ...
//========== some code that adjusts font size ============//
fontHeight = //...
// now adjust the font and reselect it
SelectObject( hdc, oldFont );
DeleteObject( font );
CreateFont( fontHeight, ... );
oldFont = SelectObject( hdc, font );

// the rest is standard stuff...


My previous comment was misleading, so I have deleted it. You have helped me with similar question, by testing similar code on the actual printer and in XPS. That helped me to find a solution. In short, your suggestion for font is correct, the problem is that constant coordinates must be properly scaled. Once I create a successfull example I will post it as a solution to demonstrate what I was talking about. Best regards until then...

Thank you for your help. I have 5ed both solutions. Best regards 'till next time!

Thank you so much!

I have found a way to get consistent results in both XPS and OneNote2007, by applying scaling factor. I haven't tested this on the real printer though...

After I change the graphics mode to pixels, the way you suggest, and apply scaling factor, I get both the GDI and GDI+ result to be the same, but they do not cover entire "page" of the XPS/OneNote documents. If I remove the setting you suggested, in both documents the picture is drawn over entire "page" properly with GDI+ only.

Therefore I must test this scaling on a real printer to see what is going on... As soon as I do that I will report my results and will probably accept your solution since I believe you are right.

Best regards until then!

I did find that article before, but I can not compile the project because I have VS 2008, and Debug doesn't run either...

I have managed to solve the problem, but will update my post after I test it on the real printer ( so far everything works fine on XPS and OneNote2007 ).

Thank you anyway, I have voted 5.

Thank you. I will do that once I figure out how to adjust GDI equation to have proper size of the font. Currently, font size is way too small, although the results seem DPI consistent. For now, the safest seems to just use GDI+.

I haven't found a way to properly adjust cell rectangles so I can properly position text.

I believe that I will be able to solve this too, so if you could explain me what Tip is and how to write it I would appreciate it ( I am always for helping others as much as I can... ).

I have decided to do my own printing and print preview.

I will follow your advice and output the report into HTML file.

For now, I am battling with printing. Can you please help me with this problem I have (http://www.codeproject.com/Questions/783420/Stack-Overflow-Questions-Tags-Users-Badges-Unanswe?arn=0) ?

Thank you ( I hope the heat is not so harsh "down there" as it starts to be here ).

I have never done this, but maybe HTML or RTF would be the way to go... I will try to post a new question regarding the transfer of window's HDC into a file... Maybe something will crop up... For now I need to figure out how to display HTML in window's HDC, manipulate with it and then save it as a file...

Thank you for your help and adamant support. I wish this question was more useful to you... :(

Actually we all have to learn HTML some day so why not starting know?

The problem I face with this task is to use GDI/GDI+ to draw to a file. If this was possible I could draw the print preview myself, and then simply use the same drawing functions to draw to a file.

Unfortunately I do not know any file format that can allow me to do this... If HTML would allow me to transfer somehow its window content to my print preview window than it would be an acceptable solution for me. As I have said, a serious developer must learn it someday so why not start now?

Thank you for your suggestions.

Those are all tricky...

I have got an idea, maybe you can help me out : Maybe I could get the window handle of Word's edit control. That way I could try and send WM_PRINTCLIENT hoping that the edit control will paint properly my window.

I have just used Spy++ to check the type of the window - it is not an edit control but a window... Still, I might be able to figure something out...

Unfortunately, I do not have time to learn .NET and C#... :(

Still, thank you for trying to help...

No, just raw WinAPI.

Thank you so much! As for tooltip icon, there is also a message that sets title and icon of a tooltip, please see this message : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb760414%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Notice how you can also put your own icon instead of predefined one.

As for window shape, well I am not that strong with GDI / GDI+ so I am content with the behavior I have currently... Good luck with your experimenting! If you find something interesting I would gladly take a look at the results.

Best regards.

It seems that I have cracked it! See my third edit.

For the cross icon you must use TTM_SETTITLE, see the docs here : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb760414%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

As for tooltip getting dismissed, I think they did not use tracking tooltip at all. There is a message EM_SHOWBALLOONTIP that "displays a balloon tip associated with an edit control", so maybe they adjust rectangle of the tooltip before they use this message. This would remove global variables, and could make tooltip autodismiss itself after certain amount of time.

As far as I can tell, this function is from your article about subclassing edit controls. The problem with those tooltips is that they show at the middle of the control. The ones with ES_NUMBER edit control show at the caret position. That is why I thought to try my implementation above.

Still, after experimenting a little, I saw that in the case of the ES_NUMBER edit control, tooltip disappears after some time. This indicates MS did not use tracking tooltip.

Perhaps I could use your suggestion and use GetCaretPos to somehow adjust the rectangle and then show tooltip. Thank you for helping.

It is harder than that in pure WinAPI...

Thank you! I missed that part in code examples I have studied... Best regards.

This is so educational and useful! 5ed! Thank you!

Thank you, it works!

Is there a way to add bool variable to the functors CBSA, CBSD... so I can write in their body something like this:

struct CBSD
{
bool operator()(const my_struct & m1, const my_struct & m2, bool ascending )
{
asc ? return m1.s < m2.s : return m1.s > m2.s;
}
};

If this is possible, how should I change l.sort(CBSD()); to properly call functor?

Thank you so much, I have 5ed it!

I have used stringstream to fix the problem.

Now there is no more need to initialize the string with maxTextLength and everything works fine. Code is much shorter, easier to maintain and more readable.

If you edit your solution with this info and offer a small example I will officially accept the solution, and upvote it as always :)

Best regards!

After I initialize strings like this : std::string date( maxTextLength, 0 ); instead of this : std::string date; everything works fine... I have also used the modified function from my post ( with erase + remove idiom applied ).

I have tried with that style as well, but the behavior is not exactly the one I want.

Thank you for your help.

Thank you for helping. I will try to implement your method and report results as soon as possible. I will need some time though...

I have successfully implemented all of your suggestions!

Furthermore, instead of using nonantialiased quality I tried to use aliased quality as a flag when creating font. Seems that everything works fine.

I just had to double buffer in printclient because you draw twice in tree's device context.

I guess there is no way to solve this problem using ClearType...

I have looked at all of my posts you have answered and was not able to find the link you posted here. Also, I saw no updated content you mention. Weird... Could you please tell me where did you post this link? In which answer / comment ?

After reading through the submitted article, I believe my best bet is to create font with antialiased quality instead of ClearType and just set it as tree's font.

I have studied carefully the code from your previous answer and managed to handle WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGED properly for multiple windows but I can not handle slight flickering.

As for the subclassing article, I still am not able to download files, but I have copy/pasted the code and managed to successfully build exe. I will study the code once I deal with the treeview.

In your previous comments you offered to show me easy way of attaching/deleting the font. I am interested to learn more about it if it isn't much of a trouble for you.

So far I am creating font like this:

INT_PTR CALLBACK SomeDialogProc(...)
{
static HFONT MyFont;

// I initialize it in WM_CREATE
case WM_INITDIALOG:
{
MyFont = CreateFont(...);
}
// and I delete it in dialog's WM_DESTROY

I really hate this type of approach, but being inexperienced I have no idea about other alternatives.

Thank you for helping.

Best regards.

Being inexperienced, I will stick with WM_SIZE in my original code until I understand how to apply WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGED.

As for font leaking, I make it a static variable and then delete it in WM_DESTROY ( again my inexperience kicks in ).

I can wait, so if you manage to solve ClearType please post your solution, I will keep trying myself.

As for article files, well I can download files from other articles but if you can upload them to FTP that would be great.

Thank you so much for finding time and good will to help a novice.

Best regards.

I came to the same conclusion ( to disable ClearType by setting my own font for treeview ) but I used ANTIALIASED_QUALITY to get better result.

I guess that this is the only way since no one can suggest solution for ClearType. The difference is slight so I think that this will do.

So many useful things I saw in your code. WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGED is something new for me since all tutorials use WM_SIZE. In my main project I have multiple controls. Can you point me in the right direction with implementing WM_POSCHANGED so I can ditch the WM_SIZE?

Someone suggested me to "write my own treeview" but being inexperienced I do not know what that means. Can you explain me concept of doing it so I can search for code examples/tutorials?

And why can't I still download files from your article?

Thanks again, I have officially accepted your answer and voted 5 stars.

One last, but important question: Shouldn't I delete the font after I finish using it? The way you coded for now, it seems like a memory leak from my point of view.

Best regards.

Thank you! I have submitted in the last edit the smallest demo program I could write ( in the bottom of my post ). Just copy/paste it in an empty .cpp file. Since I use raw WINAPI you could use it in C but you will need to perform small adjustments ( type casting and similar ). Best regards.

P.S. I can't still download the files from your article...

* fill Ordinal_Number with the number of previous records */

Everything is crystal clear : I want to insert the number of previous records in that field, like Ordinal_Number = COUNT(*) FROM MyTable but it should count the number of current record's predecessors. Something like Ordinal_Number = COUNT(*) FROM MyTable WHERE Ordinal_Number <= current_records_Ordinal_Number_value;

Article seems awesome, I will look at the files as soon as I fix this problem. I tried to vote it 5 stars but seems that I can not... Also, they "invented" new rules and I just can't figure out how to download the files... This is so frustrating!

As for rectangle and text, I just do not know how to get the coordinates of the tree's item. If I could get those precise coordinates I could use TVITEM structure to get the item text and try to draw the damn thing myself...

I need to add a new integer field into existing database. Therefore I need to update that field immediately after I add it.

I do not know how to do all you suggest. Perhaps you could give me some instructions ?

Drawing everything myself could be acceptable solution, but I would like to keep the default tree functionality. I do not understand quite clear how to "put rectangle" over already painted item ( in memory DC ) and to paint text.

Thank you for an imaginative suggestion ( I apologize for responding now, but I am on the other part of the world ).

Best regards.

I was able to fix the problem with checkboxes by ditching TransparentBlt() and doing manual transparency.

The white leftover in text is due to ClearType font set in Control Panel, and after I change this option in control panel to Standard text is painted properly. This is the only thing left for me to solve.

I have rewritten my code to use WM_PRINTCLIENT instead of the line you pointed out and still I have trouble with ClearType font. If you have any suggestions I would highly appreciate it.

Thank you.

Best regards.

Hi! It's been a long time... I have encountered a small problem with edit controls painting. Can you take a look ( http://www.codeproject.com/Questions/767217/Edit-control-not-repainted-entirely-with-chosen-br?loginkey=false ) if the heat "down there" hasn't entirely exhausted you ?

Best regards :)

Tried with InvalidateRect( (HWND)lParam, NULL, TRUE ); but it did not help... <br>
 <br>
Thank you for the article, please notify me with a comment when you finish. Can't wait. Good luck!

Since this is a new problem I have accepted your answers and 5ed them.

Thanks again!

I have tired your approach and it did work. Still, edit control's borders get thicker/darker in certain cases. Picture can explain this better and I have already documented this behavior here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23378938/edit-control-not-repainted-entirely-with-chosen-brush

Do you have any idea how to fix it? Other than that everything works fine. Thank you for your help.

As for subclassing edit control to accept only floating numbers, I have tried it myself but if you have any suggestions you could post the as an answer to this question: http://www.codeproject.com/Questions/728310/Locale-aware-edit-control-subclassing-for-decimal

I will gladly take a look at it.

Best regards until next time.

I was able to change the color of the brush and ditch the stupid sound beep. Now button is disabled AND user can see where the mistake is. There are small "leftovers" of the previous color near the borders of the edit control but I hope I will fix that too. 5ed. Thank you for your help. Best regards.

From that same documentation:

"If the dialog box procedure returns FALSE, then default message handling is performed."

Please notice that my edit control is in a dialog box.

That is why I wish to substitute the beep with a visual indicator.

I guess changing the background color of the edit control would be the wisest, but I have ran into difficulties trying to do so.

Can you provide me a small example that successfully does that? Or can you give me instructions?

Thank you.

Best regards.

That is why I wish to substitute the beep with a visual indicator.

I guess changing the background color of the edit control would be the wisest, but I have ran into difficulties trying to do so.

Can you provide me a small example that successfully does that? Or can you give me instructions?

Thank you.

Best regards.

I have already done that.

If edit control's text is invalid, I disable "Save" button and play a sound, so user can realize that input is wrong.

Still, I would also like to make it visually pointed out, like changing the background color of that edit control for example.

Best regards.

Thank you for your advice.

I have subclassed edit controls to accept appropriate characters.

I am performing validity check using strtod/strtol in response to EN_CHANGE. I test input there for each edit control ( I saw no other way ) and do MessageBeep(MB_ICINERROR); if input is invalid. I also disable the button as you have suggested ( I am so glad that we see things from similar perspective ).

Still, if multiple entries are invalid, it would help the user to somehow see which ones need to be corrected. That is why I thought to add a visual indicator.

Does this make any sense?

Thank you.

Best regards.

Thank you for your help. 5ed. Best regards.

I used Google to find a solution, but got nothing that could help me to update primary key programmatically. Therefore came my second question, which I believe is a better approach than the first one.

Best regards.

Please reread my answer, only this time do it carefully.

I did try Google, but got nothing that could help me to update primary key programmatically. Therefore came my second question, which I believe is a better approach as I have explained.

Best regards.

I did use double buffering. The problem seems more complex.

All I have to do is detect when user tries to scroll beyond upper/lower limit and then discard the message.

I would post my subclass procedure in a new post and seek for help but I doubt anyone would try to help me. Things got much harder for me since the C++ section of Quick Answers has been removed...

Thank you for trying to help, but I doubt you can do more without seeing the actual code.

Best regards.

I am working on a transparent treeview control. I have managed to make a "workable solution" but now I need to handle scrolling. I have managed to "handle" that as well, but now I face the following problem:

When scroll box is all the way up or down, and when I spin the mouse wheel, my tree gets invalidated which causes flicker.

I just want to check if scroll box has reached the top/bottom limit and if it is, not to invalidate the treeview.

I guess my question is badly phrased.

Best regards.

After taking into consideration your answer I think that I asked the wrong question.

You see, I use InvalidateRect() when user scrolls the treeview, and when I spin the mouse wheel my tree gets invalidated although scrollbox is at the top/bottom.

This means that probably the default scroll range is greater than tree's client rectangle so it seems that I just have to set the proper scroll range.

If you can verify my conclusion as correct, I would ask you to instruct me on how to set scroll range to that of tree's client area.

Thank you for answering ( 5ed ), I love the article!

Best regards.

I have solved my problem:

// capture parent bitmap
HDC pDC = GetDC( GetParent(hwnd) );

HWND parent = GetParent(hwnd);

POINT ptTreeUL, ptParentUL; // upper left corner coordinates

ptTreeUL.x = rcClient.left;
ptTreeUL.y = rcClient.top;

ptParentUL.x = rcParent.left;
ptParentUL.y = rcParent.right;

ClientToScreen( hwnd, &ptTreeUL );
ClientToScreen( parent, &ptParentUL );

// Blit the parent DC into memory DC
BitBlt( memDC, 0, 0,
rcClient.right - rcClient.left,
rcClient.bottom - rcClient.top,
pDC,
ptParentUL.x + ptTreeUL.x,
ptParentUL.y + ptTreeUL.y, SRCCOPY );

ReleaseDC( parent, pDC );

You should properly edit your solution so it can be useful to the future generations and those who are fairly inexperienced.

Thank you for the advice ( my 5 as a token of gratitude ).

Best regards.

So there is really no difference between the above functions performanse if the structure of the tree is unknown?

Thank you for trying to help.

Best regards.

So there is really no difference between the above functions performanse if the structure of the tree is unknown?

Thank you for trying to help.

Best regards.

Unfortunately, my employers wish to keep the visual style but with different text color.

I have made a big progress with NM_CUSTOMDRAW.

I will post proper code as soon as I finish everything.

Best regards.

Thank you. 5ed. Best regards.

After giving it a more detailed look I see that both notifications are supported from Vista onwards which is a problem since I work on Windows XP. That leaves TVN_KEYDOWN as a potential savior.

Best regards.

Thank you for answering.

Although the concept seems clear, I do not know how to handle "properly" TVN_KEYDOWN.

I have never used TVN_ITEMCHANGED message, so before writing this comment I gave it a quick look. It seems that you may be right. Also, TVN_ITEMCHANGING might also be the key.

I would ask you to edit your answer with a small code snippet or pseudo code, just so I can get the more concrete idea of what you are suggesting.

Meanwhile, I will try to handle your instructions on my own and will update my post with the resulting progress.

Thank you.

Best regards.

Yes I have looked at that example. Unfortunately I am unable to use that example to solve my problem due to my inexperience. Thank you for trying to help. Best regards.

Thank you so much! I know you are busy, there is no problem.

I wish I could explore image processing too ( such a wonderful field to explore! ), but I need to fix some bugs and radio button/checkbox transparency under Visual Styles is one of them :(

Thank you for the info about NM_CUSTOMDRAW I did not know about that stuff but had a "hunch" something can go wrong based on some articles about progress bar.

I have ran into this article[^] that offers a solution via WM_PRINTCLIENT. Can this help you to provide some instructions for solving this problem?

At the moment I will try with WM_PRINTCLIENT, and will probably seek assistance later ( for now you are safe :smile: ).

Hopefully I will be able to solve this problem, and if I do I will post a minimal working code for others with the same problem so they can save their time and nerves.

Best regards until next time.

Wow... So much fuss about transparent checkbox with themes...

I apologize for being annoying, but could you help me find links for a) and b) as I was unable to find them.

Furthermore, I was able to find an article that states common controls 6 get NM_CUSTOMDRAW first, and I believe that I can solve this by properly drawing the radio button / checkbox there. I just can not find any tutorials on Visual Styles out there...

Thank you for trying to help.

Best regards.

I have never done this, but I am interested in trying your approach. Can you clarify it a bit? What do you mean by WM_PAINT?

In order to preserve radio button/checkbox functionality I guess I would need to subclass those controls and handle their WM_PAINT, is that what you say? This would be acceptable solution for me.

If you mean drawing the controls in dialogs/main window's WM_PAINT handler, well I could try that to, but doesn't that mean I would have to recode everything from scratch ?

Thank you.

Best regards.

My pardon for disturbing, but I am really stuck with coloring common controls with Visual Styles enabled[^]. I think that this is something you have experience with, and I believe that it will not be too hard for you to solve.

Can you please give it a look and try to help? Again, I apologize for disturbance, but I have no one else to turn to, and I just can't figure it out.

Thank you.

Best regards.

You mean using GDI to draw text instead of static control? That is OK, but what about radio button or checkbox?

You must handle that message in order to get proper text/background color right?

Or is there a better way I am unaware of?

Thank you for your time.

" I did not use the WM_* you mentioned before,..."

Do you mean WM_CTLCOLORSTATIC[^] ?

You must have used it before, otherwise how else would you change the color of the text/background of a static control[^] ?

" After all, if I don't like to answer or cannot, I can simply ignore it. :-) "

Indeed, but I still hope we shall "stay in touch". I am also actively searching, and think I have found a concept that might work but will need answers to few follow up questions. If you still decide you want to help leave a comment.

Best regards until then.

My pardon for disturbing, but I am really stuck with coloring common controls with Visual Styles enabled[^]. Can you please give it a look and try to help?

Again, I apologize for disturbance, but I have no one else to turn to, and I just can't figure it out.

Thank you.

Best regards.

Oops, I deleted the comment since there was no need for it anymore. As for the mathematical puzzle, it would be good thing. As soon as I get some free time I might try to do something similar.

Thanks again and best regards till next time!

I have tried to perform SQL injection on a demo application and failed. After rereading your comment I now understand what you were saying about isolating data from SQL.

Just tell me this:
If I am safe this way, is there a point in limiting user input by restricting some characters?

Thank you.

Officially accepted and 5ed!

Best regards.

I do not understand exactly how it is done, but I understand that this approach protects me the best. I still would like to limit the user to enter sane characters, not some nonsense like "-+Microsoft@.

To be honest, I believe that I have done the hard part just by using the parametrized query, the removal of invalid characters seem like "ice on the cake".

Thank you again. By the way that comic link is very refreshing solution! Haven't read it yet, but still funny and refreshing!

Best regards :)

There is no need to apologize, I will have to learn .NET one day, and your guidance can only be beneficial to me!

I forgot to mention that I use ADO Command Object to perform parametrized query.

The way I see it, discarding semicolon should "do the job".

It is late now and I must work on some other parts of my project, so I will give this a look tomorrow or in a day or two ( please understand me, I am working on my own on a my first project ).

Still, knowing the quality of your answers I strongly believe I will accept the answer officially.

Thank you for your never ending support and guidance.

P.S. The first link points to a comic book! :)

Best regards.

If my understanding of the article from the edited part of the post is correct, the only place I see this being useful is when user edits the label of the node.

Unfortunately I have no time to experiment, although I would love to, since I have so much other things to do...

Thank you for help, I will look at the WM_KEYDOWN in order to try and grasp this problem better.

Best regards.

Although this is too much to grasp, I thank you for the lessons. It is always good to learn new interesting stuff :)

I have made a small demo app to test strtod and validation works.

Instead of using strings of fixed length I am using GetWindowTextLength and wstring so now there is no danger of buffer overflow when retreiving text from edit control.

All I need to do now is to incorporate this in my main application. I think that I can make it.

Again thank you so much, I highly appreciate this. You could have just say "Handle WM_KEYDOWN" and leave me to be poor programmer but you invested genuine effort to teach me the right way.

Hopefully I could one day return the favor.

Best regards Mr.Kryukov.

I will reimplement my subclassing code the way you suggest, so there is no need not to accept the answer.

Also, 5ed.

All I need to do now is to obtain the string from edit control in a proper way.

Thank you for your patience and help.

Best regards.

"I don't know why would you worry about buffer overflow at all..."

I use fixed length for string when I retrieve the text of edit control with GetWindowText like this GetWindowText( hwndEdit, MyString , 10 );.

Since I have decided to take your advice and just obtain the text and parse it, there is no more need for me to limit the length of the text entered in the edit control to 10.

Therefore if the text in the edit control is longer than 10 there will be buffer overflow.

That is why I ask you if the best approach would be to use GetWindowTextLength() to obtain the length of the edit controls text and then to use wstring ( my project is UNICODE ) to create the string that will store edit control's text.

Then all I have to do is pass that string to strtod.

Best regards.

I knew about strtod before, and the best thing is that it is even culture dependent!

My pardon, but the IEEE documentation is a bit confusing to me. After going through all those links, I could not find the max/min value, but then again I am tired at the moment so I have missed something.

I have concluded that I do not need to fear from user making an input that will exceed the "maximum double value". I guess it is safe just to take the string, parse it, and if valid just to store it as you have suggested.

The cause of my problem therefore must be my usage of strings of constant length.

Maybe it would be better to just call GetWindowTextLength() and use wstring to create a string of required length? Then I could use GetWindowText without fear of buffer overflow.

Best regards.

It will require for me to change my code but I think it will be worth it.

It seems that we have managed to establish "a common ground".

I am using MS Access database and I have some fields of type Double to hold decimal numbers.

I am inexperienced, as you have already noticed, so I thought that there was a maximum value that can be stored in a database, and wanted to ensure user does not exceeds it when inputting text.

I guess my previous conclusion was correct, it seems that my approach is wrong. If the length of the number is irrelevant then all I need to do is validate the user input the way you mentioned.

If it will not take much of your time and space, can you please edit your answer to explain me the following:

1. Why double does not have maximum value that can be stored in the database ?

2. Can you recommend me how to change my approach with storing the string from edit control, so I can adapt my code to this new knowledge I have gained ?

If all these are too much then I will post a new question about this, and I ask you to instruct me on which things I should pay attention the most during my research ( I will not ask a question without trying hard to fix the problem myself ).

Thank you for your clarifications.

Best regards.

" You first parse the text into double, and, from this moment, decimals become irrelevant, you have binary double..."

Well, it seems that this is the point where I face the problem.

I believe that database has a fixed range of maximal decimal numbers it can store.

Let us say that range is from -100,5 to 100,5. If user enters 200,5 than an error will occur after I try to execute insert into database.

To protect myself from that, I have used EM_LIMITTEXT to limit the length of text entered text into edit control.

I use strings of fixed length to store the result of GetWindowText.

For example, if the maximal text length is 50, i use wchar_t ExampleString[50] for storing the result of GetWindowText.

If wtof adds a leading zero, and I programmatically load the number into edit control, the text length might be 51 due to the added leading zero. This will cause buffer overflow when I call GetWindowText.

Perhaps my entire approach of getting/storing the text from edit control is bad, but being a beginner I know no better. If you believe this may be a problem, then maybe it is best for me to ask a new question about it.

Best regards.

I have a database with different fields like employee names, consumption of electric energy, phone number, company name etc.

I store numeric data as numbers, of course, but GetWindowText stores the text of the edit control into a char array ( please see the documentation ) and that is the only way to get the text from the edit control if it is a decimal number.

Since edit control's text must be stored in a string I must convert it to double, so I can properly store it in a database.

Again, let me clarify:

The database field is of type Double, INSERT query will use double, but edit control has text in it, and the only way to get that text is to store it into string with the call to GetWindowText.

There is no other way I know if you have a decimal number as edit control's text ( that is why I can not use GetDlgItemInt for example ). Therefore I must perform conversion from string to double.

I hope this clarifies things better.

Best regards.

There is a misunderstanding again between us. Let us try to clarify matters again:

I use _wtof_l( myDoubleVariable, _get_current_locale() ) to properly convert string to double.

I insert into database using ADO ( I havent learned ADO.NET yet ), by using Command object.

Everything works fine. When I type in edit control .23 my query successfully executes.

The point is that once I open database to check if it really executed well, I see 0.23 which is OK, since wtof adds automatically the leading zero.

If I now load this value into edit control I get 0.23 text, which is also OK, since that is a number stored in database.

However if I call GetWindowText there is a danger of buffer oferflow, due to reasons described in my comment.

Hopefully this clarifies thing better.

Thank you Mr.Kryukov for trying to help and for your patience.

Best regards.

Mr.Kryukov,

First off thank you for taking time to see this post and thank you for replying.

This will take a while so please forgive me for a lengthy comment. If you have further questions I will understand, and I will answer them as always.

Here is the problem:

I have a dialog box with lots of edit controls, radio buttons and other stuff and it has a purpose to communicate with a database.

Dialog box can both read and edit the data from a database, and there is the problem.

The maximal allowed length of the decimal number is 10, and here is the critical case:

Let us say user enters .123456789 into database. This will be stored as 0.123456789 which is longer than maximal allowed length by 1 character ( the leading zero was added ).

User may make a mistake by clicking the wrong radio button, for example, and will decide to correct it. My dialog box has an option of reloading the data and user will do that in order to make the above mentioned correction.

Now I have a dilemma:

If I truncate the data I will lose the part of the information that may be important. I consider this a bad coding and unacceptable option.

If I just load the data into edit control it will have 0.123456789 text which is 11 characters long.

Imagine that user corrects the before mentioned mistake by clicking on the correct radio button and hits "Edit" button.

Now I will use GetWindowText( hwndOfMyEditControl, myStringVariable, 10 ); to store back the text from the edit control and get buffer overflow since eleven characters can't stay in an array of 10 characters.

Therefore to fix this problem I have decided to forbid the user to leave out the leading numbers.

This makes -.23 and other similar formats invalid.

If user enters -123.456 ( where red text represents current selection ) and presses Delete, I will get -.23. The user may continue to add numbers at the end of the number, thus getting the critical case I have described ( he could just add seven consecutive nines and get something like -.239999999 which is eleven characters long and again I will get buffer overflow ).

I do not how to handle this case properly, so I have decided to subclass the edit control and just forbid the format where leading numbers are left out, as I have already mentioned.

That is why I needed to properly handle every deleting ( WM_CUT, WM_CLEAR, backspace and Delete ).

I have posted this question on StackOverflow as well, and got an interesting answer:

The poster used Spy++ on Notepad to actually determine that only WM_KEYDOWN and WM_KEYUP messages are sent when user presses Delete. Therefore I have implemented my handling of Delete via WM_KEYDOWN.

If you have a better way to reccomend for protection of the above mentioned buffer overflow, I would highly appreciate it, as always. After all we learn new and useful things aslong as we live, right?

I aain apologize for the lengthy comment, but I wanted to explain the problem properly, and I never spare "words" to do that.

Best regards.

Is there a danger of endless recursion in this case? If there is, what measures could I take to prevent it from happening ?

Thank you for your suggestions.

Best regards.

Thank you for your help. I guess I will have to do everything on my own since I do not allow exponents. 5ed. Best regards.

Thank you. Best regards. 5ed

Everything is ok, there s no need to apologize :)

I believe you are right, and I have decided not to touch anything.

Parsing is almost done, after which I will post my subclassing procedure as an answer so I can get advices on improving my code or not.

I believe that there will be no need to improve my code, so I will accept all the answers ( I have already 5ed them ). Thank you for your help.

Best regards!

I was actually referring to the static structure pLocaleInfo li from code example[^] in the edited part of my post.

In the example, structure holds 2 wchar_t arrays with a fixed size of five.

I wish to change those arrays to be something like this:


typedef struct LocaleInfo
{
wchar_t *NegativeSign;
wchar_t *DecimalSeparator;
}*pLocaleInfo;


In the response to the WM_Create and WM_SETTINGCHANGE I could allocate them the way PJ Arends did in the Solution 2, see his BOOL CGridCellNumeric::Format(CString &TheString) method in his .cpp file:

int count = 0;

/*** store decimal separator ***/

// get array size
count = ::GetLocaleInfo( LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT,
LOCALE_SNATIVEDIGITS, NULL, 0 );

// allocate
li->DecimalSeparator = new wchar_t[count];

// store the separators
count = ::GetLocaleInfo (LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, LOCALE_SDECIMAL,
li->DecimalSeparator, count );

/*** store negative sign ***/

// get array size
count = ::GetLocaleInfo (LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT,
LOCALE_SNEGATIVESIGN, NULL, 0 );

// allocate
li->NegativeSign = new wchar_t[count];

// store the negative signs
count = ::GetLocaleInfo (LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, LOCALE_SNEGATIVESIGN,
li->NegativeSign, count );


The reason for this is that some languages have multiple/different negative signs/decimal separators according to this documentation[^]-see specifically documentation for LOCALE_SDECIMAL/LOCALE_SNEGATIVESIGN.

Although documentation does state that maximum size for decimal separator is 4 ( including terminating NULL character! ), and 5 ( including terminating NULL character! ) for negative sign, I assume that dynamically allocating buffer will be more efficient.

Reading through your comment, I start to think that maybe I should just put size 4 for decimal separator and 5 for negative sign, since I doubt that my allocation will prove as good optimization.

What do you think-should I just put max sizes or dynamically allocate arrays?

Again, if I can help you further with providing more info, please ell me.

Thank you for helping me.

Best regards.

There is a small problem I ran into: Instead of using constant size for my wchar_t arrays, I wish to dynamically allocate them so I do not waste memory ( you can look at the example from the second solution, in the .cpp file for the method Format ).

I need to do that in my response to WM_SETTINGCHANGE but once I change the language in Control Panel my app hangs.

Apparently I am doing something wrong.

Can you help me by showing me how to properly release and realocate memory in my structure's fields so my subclass procedure works properly?

Thank you.

Best regards.

Thank you so much!

I agree with everything you have said-I have missed the fact about WM_CLOSE sometimes not being received! I will put my deletion code in WM_DESTROY as you have suggested.

One off the topic question though:

In my original application I have GDI objects that are deleted in WM_CLOSE. Thinking about your advice, I believe I should move all of my deletion code to WM_DESTROY. What would you advise me to do?

Thank you for your help, now all what is left for me to do is implementing the text parsing properly.

Best regards.

I do believe that a simple break; will work. After breaking, it goes to DefSubclassProc anyway and that should take care of it.

No one demonstrated passing this structure to the dialog via LPARAM but I have managed to make it work.

Also, I have made 2 edit controls and got error when shut down the dialog, which is expected in my opinion.

You see we send a pointer to a structure to subclassing procedure, so when dialog box is performing destruction he will destroy first edit control.

Edit control will remove its subclassing and delete the local structure but since this structure is a pointer to main windows structure, you will also delete that structure as well!

Now when dialog box destroys the second edit control, the edit control will remove its subclassing and try to delete deleted structure which will result in an error!

To solve this I have made a small demo application submitted here[^] so I do not clog this post.

Please give it a look, and try to verify my findings. If you can suggest an improvement I will more than happily consider it.

Best regards!

OK, it seems that everything works now after I alter the structure initialization per your instructions!

The only thing left is to properly delete data when removing subclassing so memory leaks can be avoided.

As for text validation-> "no sweat" I can do this on my own, and the example from second solution is great as well!

As soon as I find out how to safely unsubclass I will officially accept all three solutions! So far I have 5ed all of the answers!

Hopefully we shall somehow solve this last piece of the puzzle.

Best regards.

Wow, what a Twilight Zone moment ! :)))

I was pondering about this method myself!

I too, unfortunately, do not know where is appropriate to release memory.

Further more, I just need to adapt my locale settings to the user default, so I will need only one instance of the structure and it will be passed to all numeric edit controls.

Thank you so much for taking time to try and help-I really appreciate it-and thank you for that.

You and Mr.Kryukov have helped me so much in the last half year period of time and always have had patience for my inexperience. I wish if there is something I could do to repay you in the same manner...

I hope you are coping a little better with the scorching heat "down there" :)

By the way, I get error reports around the code that initializes your structure, specifically here:

*refData1 = (editData_t){period, isNumberValid2, "123.456"};

The error code is C2059. Browsing through Internet for this error, I have found an MSDN example that states this might be an error in initializing the structure, which can be solved with a constructor. After observing your code I see no constructor, but I am unable to rework it to compile. Can you help me please?

Until next time, best regards!

My pardon for disturbing you, but I have ran into a problem when I tried to create an edit control that accepts signed float numbers ( something like -123.456 ).

After researching for a solution I have came to an idea to parse text in EN_UPDATE message, but recursion is the problem.

I have also tried subclassing with some decent, but not satisfactory, results.

Can you please look at this [^] question and try to help me?

Again, I apologize for disturbing, but it seems that section for C++ in Quick Answers is removed now on CP in favor of JavaScript questions.

Thank you.

Best regards.

I have ran into problems with the recursion when responding to EN_UPDATE message.

Can you please instruct me how to handle it properly ?

I am using C++ and pure Win32 API.

Thank you.

Best regards.

Code is pretty big, and hard for me to follow since I do not know MFC yet, but I think I have managed to grasp the concept:

You set Updating flag in WM_CHAR to indicate if user is typing or not, and do all the validation checking in WM_NOTIFY handler only if user is not typing. Did I get this right?

One more thing:

I do not fully comprehend your validation code in OnNotify function.

In the demo application submitted in the article, user can type multiple separators, and minus signs can be placed anywhere.

I must ask you where in your code do you secure the proper input ? I have failed to find the handler/mechanism for correction of input mistakes made by the user.

Best regards.

Thank you for your advices. Please be patient, since I will need time to implement all of this. Until we "speak" again-which I hope should be soon-I wish you best regards!

I agree with you about not using global variables, but how else can I solve this?

Taking the above program into consideration ( see APPENDIX section ), can you provide a better solution for me to do this ? One that does not constantly call GetLocaleInfo or has global static structure ?

Sorry for being so annoying, but I really want to do this as best as I can.

Best regards.

Thank you for your suggestions.

I will implement your suggestion for while loop.

As for storing the locale info into a member variable, I have a question:

I do not have a class, since this is Win32 API I do everything "C-style".

I do not mind using the class, but so far there was no need for one.

Should I use static global variable to store locale info?

Thank you again.

Best regards.

I forgot that on this site you can accept multiple answers...

I have formally accepted your answer as well.

Until next time best regards.

Mr.Kryukov,

I was setting the locale in a wrong way, the accepted answer pointed it out well.

Still, the API you suggested was the one I should have used only I failed to do so right.

Because of that, and your thorough and comprehensive coverage you have earned my 5.

Thank you again for helping me-I highly appreciate it.

Best regards.

Thank you so much!

My 5!

Best regards!