Delimiters? Different by Language/County?

[Pat Stanford]

I think my archive might have gotten too big, because I am sure this has been discussed before, but I can't find it.

 

The basic question is:  How can you right a script that will run anywhere if it depends on how things are delimited.

 

In the US we use a period (.) as the decimal point. In many other countries it is a comma (,).

 

In the US we use a comma (,) as the separator in a CSV file, in Europe it is a semicolon (;)

 

I am considering a script that will read the formula out of a worksheet cell [=record.field format] and then I want to be able to extract the record name and field name. I can do that relatively easily using Copy, Pos, and SubString, but only if I am certain what the delimiter character between the two parts of the field are. Is it always a period? Or is it a comma in some languages/countries?

 

Since I think this is actually based on the operating system settings, it is not even a easy as having different versions for different countries as someone could set their OS up differently.

 

How do I determine what delimiters are used or how do I write a script that is delimiter independent?

 

I think I was bitten by this in the last couple of weeks where a script I posted had to have the commas changed to semicolons but I can't find that thread either.  Grrrrr.

 

OK Gurus what am I missing to make this work?

 

[Peter Vandewalle]

You’re right about the delimiters when it comes to numbers. But for records/fields in Vectorworks worksheets the delimiter is always a period.

[r.cipriani]

3 hours ago, Pat Stanford said:

I think I was bitten by this in the last couple of weeks where a script I posted had to have the commas changed to semicolons but I can't find that thread either.  Grrrrr.

 

Was the script you posted in my thread “insert values referred to Working Plane in a Worksheet”

I am under the impression that if you send a .vwx file containing the script the separators are always correct. 

[Art V]

This could probably be solved by VW (allow for) using a tab delimiter as that is probably the delimiter least likely to cause issues in CAD software where delimited lists are involved.

[JBenghiat]

You can probably sleuth out the decimal indicator by parsing the result of a Num2Str conversion. 
 

In the case of a worksheet formula however, this is a proprietary syntax and I’m fairly sure it doesn’t get localized. 

[Pat Stanford]

Thank you all for the input. I think that is enough for me to move on. For now.

 

Best Regards.