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A string processing class
Writing your first program In this tutorial we will deomnstrate many of the features and benefits of classes, and the objects that derive
Writing your second program from them. We'll do this by creating a new string processing class that provides some string handling utilities
Amending this program that Delphi doesn't:

Delphi data types * The number of words in the string

Numbers * Replacement of all substring occurences - returning the count of changes
Text (strings and chars) * Find first and find next for a substring in the string
Sets and enumerations
Arrays
Records Defining the external view of the class
Programming logic Our new class will be called TStringy and will reside in its own Unit Stringy. In fact, this unit will contain only the
Looping class definition, plus its implementation.
SubRoutines
Exception handling So the first thing we will look at is the class definition:

Dates and times type

TStringy = Class
Files // These variables and methods are not visible outside this class
// They are purely used in the implementation below
Pointers // Note that variables are all prefixed bt 'st'. This allows us, for example
// to use 'WordCount' as the property name - properties cannot use the same
// name as a variable.
Printing text and graphics private
stText : String; // The string passed to the constructor
Object Orientation basics stWordCount : Integer; // Internal count of words in the string
Memory leaks! stFindString : String; // The substring used by FindFirst, FindNext
Inheritance stFindPosition : Integer; // FindFirst/FindNext current position
Abstraction procedure GetWordCount; // Calculates the word count
Interfaces procedure SetText(const Value: String); // Changes the text string
An example class
// These methods and properties are all usable by instances of the class
published
References // Called when creating an instance (object) from this class
// The passed string is the one that is operated on by the methods below
Standard components constructor Create(Text : String);

// Utility to replace all occurences of a substring in the string

Articles // The number of replacements is returned
// This utility is CASE SENSITIVE
function Replace(fromStr, toStr : String) : Integer;
A brief history of Delphi
// Utility to find the first occurence of a substring in the string
Usability : file handling // The returned value is the found string position (strings start at 1)
// If not found, -1 is returned
Usability : reference books // This utility is CASE SENSITIVE
function FindFirst(search : String) : Integer;

Author links // Utility to find the next occurence of the FindFirst substring
// If not found, -1 is returned
// If no FindFirst performed before this call, -2 is returned
// This utility is CASE SENSITIVE
function FindNext : Integer;

// The string itself - allow it to be read and overwritten

property Text : String
read stText
write SetText; // We call a method to do this

// The number of words in the document. Words are groups of characters

// separated by blanks, tabs, carriage returns and line feeds
property WordCount : Integer
read stWordCount;
end;

This is quite long, but a lot of it is commentary. Click on the highlighted keywords to learn more. The new
TStringy class is a type - not a variable. We are defining a class - it must be built (instantiated) into an object to
be used.

The definition is split into sections - private for private, internal fields (data) and methods (routines), and
published for externally visible fields and methods (see also Protected and Public).

The class is built into an object by calling the constructor Create method. This takes a string called Text. As a
user of the class, we do not care what it does with this string, just so long as it remembers it. Objects are very
good at that - a feature of object orientation.

Our class has published functions to perform the replace and find operations that we want. And it has a
property to retrieve the word count. Again, we just use the property, not caring how the object calculated tha
value.

There is also a property for reading changing the original construction string. When writing a new value, the
property calls a private method SetText. This allows us to do more than just store the new string value.

In the private section, we hold the string, and other bits and pieces, along with internal methods. These are not
visible to users of the object.

Implementing the class

Step by step, we will describe how the published methods are implemented. We do not need to do anything for
the properties - they simply read and write to our private data fields. We could have vetted these actions by
defining get and set routines to be called by the properties. See Property for more on this topic.

The implementation is defined in the Implementation keyword:

implementation

uses
// Units used only internally by this class
SysUtils, StrUtils;

... methods are implemented from here

 Note that we are using selected Delphi units to help code our implementation. They are defined in the Uses
clause before we get to the code.

Implementing the constructor

The constructor method is traditionally called Create - it is strongly
recommended that you do so for consistency.

constructor TStringy.Create(Text: String);

begin
stText := Text; // Save the passed string
stFindPosition := 1; // Start a search at the string start
stFindString := ''; // No find string provided yet
GetWordCount; // Call a subroutine to get the word count
end;

The constructor stores the passed string, prepares for the Find processing, and
calculates the number of words in the string. Well not exactly - it calls a private
method to do this (shown a bit further on).

When we change the string, we must of course recalculate the word count. The
WordCount write property calls SetText does just this:

procedure TStringy.SetText(const Value: String);

begin
stText := Value; // Save the passed string
stFindPosition := 1; // Reposition the find mechanism to the start
GetWordCount; // Recalculate the word count
end;

Private method for calculating the number of words

The GetWordCount procedure takes no parameters. It simply counts the number
of words in the string, and stores the count in the private stWordCount field.
Users of a TStringy object can get to this value via the WordCount property (we'll
see how later).

Here is the code for the word count method:

procedure TStringy.GetWordCount;
const
// Define word separator types that we will recognise
LF = #10;
TAB = #9;
CR = #13;
BLANK = #32;
var
WordSeparatorSet : Set of Char; // We will set on only the above characters
index : Integer; // Used to scan along the string
inWord : Boolean; // Indicates whether we are in the middle of a word
begin
// Turn on the TAB, CR, LF and BLANK characters in our word separator set
WordSeparatorSet := [LF, TAB, CR, BLANK];

// Start with 0 words

stWordCount := 0;

// Scan the string character by character looking for word separators

inWord := false;

for index := 1 to Length(stText) do

begin
// Have we found a separator character?
if stText[index] In WordSeparatorSet
then
begin
// Separator found - have we moved from a word?
if inWord then Inc(stWordCount); // Yes - we have ended another word

// Indicate that we are not in a word anymore

inWord := false;
end
else
// Separator not found - we are in a word
inWord := true;
end;

// Finally, were we still in a word at the end of the string?

// If so, we must add one to the word count since we did not
// meet a separator character.
if inWord then Inc(stWordCount);
end;

We'll cover this bit by bit. You can read further by clicking on the links in the
code.

First, we define character constants for the characters that we will recognise as
word separators. Then a Set variable WordSeperatorSet is defined. We set on
just the word separator characters in this set of all characters. We can then use
In to check if a character in the string is one of these types. This is very elegant
and makes for very readable code. A nice feature of Delphi.

We do this in a For loop, scanning the whole length of the string. We use a
Boolean flag to remember whether the last character we looked at was a
character. This is quite compact code, and runs efficiently. Note that we could
have done withouth the inner begin..end statements. We use them for code
clarity.

Implementing the FindFirst method

The FindFirst method sort of cheats - it does a bit of setting up of private fields
before calling the FindNext method. Nothing wrong with this - we really only
need one lot of code that does the finding.

function TStringy.FindFirst(search: String): Integer;

begin
// Here we sort of cheat - we save the search string and just call
// FindNext after setting the initial string start conditions
stFindString := search;
stFindPosition := 1;

Result := FindNext;
end;

Note that we store the return value from a function in a pseudo variable called
Result. We do not have to set the value at the end of the routine. We can read
 from it as well.

Implementing the FindNext method

Here we define the nitty gritty of the substring find code:

function TStringy.FindNext: Integer;

var
index : Integer;
findSize : Integer;
begin
/// Only scan if we have a valid scan string
if Length(stFindString) = 0
then Result := -2
else
begin
// Set the search string size
findSize := Length(stFindString);

// Set the result to the 'not found' value

Result := -1;

// Start the search from where we last left off

index := stFindPosition;

// Scan the string :

// We check for a match with the first character of the fromStr as we
// step along the string. Only when the first character matches do we
// compare the whole string. This is more efficient.
// We abort the loop if the string is found.
while (index <= Length(stText)) and (Result < 0) do
begin
// Check the first character of the search string
if stText[index] = stFindString[1] then
begin
// Now check the whole string - setting up a loop exit condition if
// the string matches
if AnsiMidStr(stText, index, findSize) = stFindString
then Result := index;
end;

// Move along the string

Inc(index);
end;

// Position the next search from where the above leaves off
// Notice that index gets incremented even with a successful match
stFindPosition := index
end;

// This subroutine will now exit with the established Result value
end;

We use a While loop to scan along the string. We avoid using a For loop because
we need to abandon the string scan at any time if we find the substring in it.

We use AnsiMidStr to extract a section of the current string at the current index
position for comparing with the find string.

Implementing the Replace method

This is the most complex method of this class. It also uses a While loop to scan
the string, but builds up the target string bit by bit. It takes characters one at a
time from this string, and inserts the new toStr value in place of matches with
the fromStr value.

function TStringy.Replace(fromStr, toStr: String): Integer;

var
fromSize, count, index : Integer;
newText : String;
matched : Boolean;
begin
// Get the size of the from string
fromSize := Length(fromStr);

// Start with 0 replacements

count := 0;

// We will build the target string in the newText variable

newText := '';
index := 1;

// Scan the string :

// We check for a match with the first character of the fromStr as we step
// along the string. Only when the first character matches do we compare
// the whole string. This is more efficient.
while index <= Length(stText) do
begin
// Indicate no match for this character
matched := false;

// Check the first character of the fromStr

if stText[index] = fromStr[1] then
begin
if AnsiMidStr(stText, index, fromSize) = fromStr then
begin
// Increment the replace count
Inc(count);

// Store the toStr in the target string

newText := newText + toStr;

// Move the index past the from string we just matched

Inc(index, fromSize);

// Indicate that we have a match

matched := true;
end;
end;

// If no character match :
if not matched then
begin
// Store the current character in the target string, and
// then skip to the next source string character
newText := newText + stText[index];
Inc(index);
end;
end;

// Copy the newly built string back to stText - as long as we made changes
if count > 0 then stText := newText;

// Return the number of replacements made

Result := count;
end;
 Notice that the Inc routine provided by Delphi has two methods of calling it. One
with just the variable to be incremented by 1. The second where we provide a
different increment value. Here, we increment teh string index by the length of
the matching substring.

The whole of the Stringy is shown on the next page, along with sample code that
illustrates use of it.

Page 1 of 2 | Using this Stringy unit

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