Help with search and replace

To find the values you may use the String Parser object.

Fusion's native string expressions probably give you all you need for this:

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It's all pretty logical, but you have to break down the process step by step, which can get quite tedious.

For example, if you want to learn what the Map ID is, you'd probably use the extract middle substring expression to find it. When you select it, it will look like this:

Mid$(>Enter string<, >Enter first character number<, >Enter number of characters<)

The first parameter is the string you're searching: <property name="Map ID" type="int" value="103"/>. If entering it manually, remember to use double quotation marks "" to allow the quotation marks to be part of the string. So the first parameter would be "<property name=""Map ID"" type=""int"" value=""103""/>"

For the second parameter, you might use the Find expression to search for "value=""", which would give you the exact character number (as a value) where value="103.... is found. If you added 8 to that, you would have the exact location of where 103"/> starts.

For the third parameter, you could use the Length of String expression to find the total length of the string, then subtract 45 from it, which should give you the number of digits of your number (3, in the case of 103).

You would then use the replace substring in a string expression, using similar principles as above, to replace the number in your string.

The above all relates to searching and modifying a single line string, as in your first post. To search through an entire file, you could use much the same techniques and expressions as above, but first load the entire file into a single string, which you can do using String Parser 2.

If there's a chance that your desired line would sometimes contain extra spaces here or there, then you might want to use the replace substring in a string expression to first trim out all spaces from your string before you perform any of the operations above, to ensure accurate results.

Having said all that, I notice that there's an extension called XML parser object that says its supports wildcard searching. You might want to try that first.

Quote from willy

Thanks for a detailed answer. I guess my first issue is to successfully select the full line of text.
Since I want to parse many of these files through a loop, I don't know the value (e.g. "103") in advance - note in my example file above, it can only highlight the first part of the text that is static, and not the value which is unkown, unless done manually.

If I somehow could highlight the entire line, I think the rest would be easy. I could just replace it with:

1. add to string: <property name="Map ID" type="int" value="
2. + add my new value
3. + add to string: "/>

I can experiment some more with string parser, and maybe check out the XML parser object

Yes, so you can easily load the whole file with String Parser 2 into a string, and then use the expressions discussed above on that string.

• If you search for <property name="Map ID" type="int" value=" then you'll find the beginning character of the line you're trying to replace.
• If you search from that spot for /> then you can find the end character of the line you're trying to replace.
• Once you know the precise beginning and end of the line, you have all you need to replace the entire line, and nothing but that line.

Though you should probably start with the XML parser object, as it sounds like it's designed for exactly your sort of use case.

Another way to do it would be to load the whole file into a list object. The list object very much works with lines, not characters, so you could then easily search for the right line, and easily change the whole line. Which is closer to how you're currently imagining the process. But IIRC, loading a file into a list object is a pretty fiddly process on its own, requiring a fastloop setup. You can do it more easily with the Internal List Object. But start with the XML parser object, as that has the potential to be your easiest option.