Question

I have a strange issue in my Web Page, specifically with a text area element that obtains the clipboard from the user.

The user perform a CTRL+V; and I created a event to get the data with the event KeyUp.

…this works fine…

But, when I try to divide by each “row” of this textarea; start the problems…
The input can be like this example:

The data reads something like that:

Row1[0][HT]Row1[1][LF]”Row2[0] Comment line 1[LF]Row2[0] Comment line 2″[HT]Row2[1]

Where:
[HT] means {Tab}
[LF] means {New line}

I use:

var myData = document.getElementById("TextAreaElement").value;
var vArray = myData.split(/\n/);

But this array return me 3 lines…

---

Somebody knows any solution or alternative way?

Answer 1

Well, I don’t find the way to work with some regular expression or a javascript method (I believe that can do it). I worked a different way to split the info.

I used AJAX to send this information to the server and perform the split in VB.
In resume:

1. I get the max columns (split by tabs).

2. Get and evaluate each value of the array of tabs.

3. If start with double quotes, tried to find the end of the double quotes (before that, replaced the mid double quotes with a unique text)

4. Every time that evaluated an item of the original Array, I deleted each item (Always evaluate the item 0)…

5. If find a new line (final of the row), only removed the text of the “final column” of the previous row.

I hope help to someone with the same problem. Cheers.

Here is the code:

Public Function TEST(ByVal pText As String) As String
    Try
        Dim vText As String = pText

        Dim vArray As New ArrayList
        vArray.AddRange(vText.Split(vbNewLine))
        Dim vActualIndex As Integer = 0

        Dim vMaxColumns As Integer = 0

        For Each vArrayItem In vArray
            If vArrayItem.Split(vbTab).Length > vMaxColumns Then
                vMaxColumns = vArrayItem.Split(vbTab).Length
            End If
        Next

        Dim vActualArray(vMaxColumns - 1) As String
        vArray = New ArrayList
        vArray.AddRange(vText.Split(vbTab))

        Dim vLen As Integer = vArray.Count
        Dim vNewArray As New ArrayList

        vActualIndex = 0

        Do While vArray.Count <> 0
            If vArray(0).Split(vbNewLine).Length = 1 Then
                vActualArray(vActualIndex) = vArray(0)
                vActualIndex += 1
            Else
                If vArray(0).Split(vbNewLine)(0).ToString.StartsWith("""") Then
                    vArray(0) = Mid(vArray(0), 2).Replace("""""", "*_IDIDIDUNIQUEID_*")

                    If InStr(vArray(0), """" & vbNewLine) <> 0 Then
                        vActualArray(vActualIndex) = Mid(vArray(0), 1, InStr(vArray(0), """" & vbNewLine) + 1)
                        vArray(0) = Mid(vArray(0), InStr(vArray(0), """" & vbNewLine) + 3)

                        vActualArray(vActualIndex) = vActualArray(vActualIndex).ToString.Replace("*_IDIDIDUNIQUEID_*", """""")
                        vArray(0) = vArray(0).ToString.Replace("*_IDIDIDUNIQUEID_*", """""")

                        vActualIndex += 1

                        GoTo Skip_remove
                    End If

                    vArray(0) = vArray(0).ToString.Replace("*_IDIDIDUNIQUEID_*", """""")
                    vActualArray(vActualIndex) = vArray(0)
                    vActualIndex += 1
                Else
                    vActualArray(vActualIndex) = vArray(0).Split(vbNewLine)(0)
                    vActualIndex += 1

                    vArray(0) = vArray(0).ToString.Substring(vArray(0).Split(vbNewLine)(0).ToString.Length + 2)
                    GoTo Skip_remove
                End If
            End If

            vArray.RemoveAt(0)

‘ This is a label in VB code
Skip_remove:

            If vActualIndex >= vMaxColumns Then
                vNewArray.Add(vActualArray)

                ReDim vActualArray(vMaxColumns - 1)

                vActualIndex = 0
            End If
        Loop
    Catch ex As Exception
        Return ""
    End Try
End Function