• The Code Editor
• Using the Xbasic Code Editor
• Transform Code Utility

Transform Code Utility

Description

The Code > Transform command is a very powerful script editing tool for advanced Xbasic programmers. This utility has several built-in functions.

• Transform using an Xbasic expression

• Remove blank lines

• Sort (Ascending or Descending)

• Invert (from the initial order)

Transform using an Xbasic Expression

Transform using an Xbasic Expression lets you use Xbasic to transform a block of code in the Code Editor. For example, assume that the Code Editor contains the following block of code:

Firstname 
Lastname 
Company 
City 
State 
Zip

You would like to transform the code into the following:

DIM Firstname as C 
DIM Lastname as C 
DIM Company as C 
DIM City as C 
DIM State as C 
DIM Zip as C

To transform the code :

1. Select the text in the Code Editor.

   

2. Select the Transform Code command (from the toolbar, menu, or right-click menu). The Transform Code dialog appears.

3. Optionally, click the Remove Blank Lines or Sort radio buttons and click OK.

4. Optionally, enter a transformation expression in the Expression field. For example, enter: "DIM " + x + " as C", where " x " is the placeholder for the text on each line in the selection.

   

5. Click OK and the selected text is transformed.

   

6. Instead of entering your own Transformation expression, you can click the 'lamp' icon next to the Expression text box, to get a list of recently defined transformations, and also pre-defined transformations. These include:

   • upper case

   • lower case

   • proper case

   • first letter upper case

   • swap names

   • quote text

   • unquote text

   • trim leading and trailing spaces

   • trim leading spaces

   • trim trailing spaces

Making Your Own Expressions

The first thing to do when composing an expression is to parse the "words" in the input data. There may be only one "word", but if there are more, use the WORD() function. For example, assume the input data is "word1 word2":

? word(data, 1," ")
= "word1"
? word(data, 2," ")
= "word2"

Pre-Defined Transformations Dialog

After expressions are used, they are added to the list of expressions that appear if you click the icon to display the Pre-Defined Transformations dialog. When the dialog appears:

1. Optionally, add a description to the transformation.

2. Click Save.

3. To remove a transformation, select it and click the red 'x' icon.