StringSet Usage Example

StringSet establishes a set of up to 26 strings. Each string is referenced by a letter of the alphabet. You can use StringSet's Expand function to replace every StringSet reference within a string with its assigned string. In a string processed by Expand, a given string is referenced by a special character (one not normally occuring in your strings) followed by its assigned letter. Here is an example of how you might use StringSet.

This piece of code is acting as a simple Mail Merge funtion. A file (Message.txt) containing a simple eMail message is being read, and processed once, for each person who is to receive the message. The message contains insertion points (StringSet references) for the eMail address, name, and phone number of the recipient. These insertion points are indicated, in the prototype message, as $A, $N, and $P.

Type ReplType as   'define UDT to hold recipient data   eMail as String   Name as String   Phone as String End Type Dim Repl as ReplType Dim ss as StringSet   'declare our StringSet   FileName = "Message.txt"   Lngth = FileLen(FileName)   'get length of file   Strg = Space(Lngth)   'set up recepticle to hold file content   FileNum = FreeFile   'get an available file number   Set ss = New StringSet   'create the object   ss.ShortCut = "$"   'set StringSet reference character to $   Repl = NextAddressee   'get first addressee information   While Repl.eMail <> ""   'loop through all addressees     Call ss.PutString("A", Repl.eMail)   'set up eMail address substitutions, $A     Call ss.PutString("N", Repl.Name)   'set up name substitutions, $N     Call ss.PutString("P", Repl.Phone)   'set up phone number substitutions, $P     Open FileName For Binary As FileNum   'open the file     Get #FileNum, , Strg   'read entire file into Strg     Close #FileNum   'close the file     Msg = ss.Expand(Strg)   'perform the substitutions     Call SendMessage(Msg)   'send out the eMail message     Repl = NextAddressee   'get next addressee information   Wend End Sub