Custom @windows

[Tutorial]

Custom @windows

 

Description:

 

We’ll use a custom @window to store a list of text lines.

 

Advantages:

 

Has powerful sorting and search options using /filter and other premade $identifiers .

 

Can be saved easily into .txt files for permanent storage.

 

When using dialog lists you should have a copy of the data in a @window and do all the sorting and searching work in the @window because it’s much more efficient.

 

Disadvantages:

 

Not as organized as hash tables.

 

Inefficient access to data (only direct access is by line number).

 

Storage:

 

The data is stored in as list in a custom @window, which we’ll usually prefer to hide.

 

Initializing a custom @window:

 

/window –h @name

 

This will activate a new window with the specified name. (-h means hidden)

 

Adding data:

 

/aline @name data

 

Adds data to the end of the @window. ( can use /aline –n to prevent adding lines that exist ).

 

Deleting data:

 

/dline @name N file.txt

 

Deletes the Nth line of data in the @window.

 

/window –c @name

 

Will close the specified @window.

 

Inserting data:

 

/iline @name N data

 

Inserts the line of data in the Nth line. ( can use /iline –n to prevent adding lines that exist ) .

 

/rline @name N data

 

Inserts the line of data to the Nth line, and overwrites it.

 

Retrieving data:

 

Set %line $line(@name,N)

 

Gets the Nth line in the @window.

 

Searching for data:

 

Set %lineNum $fline(@name,*wild*match*,N,T)

 

Gets the position of the Nth matching line that matches the *wild*match*.

 

The T is optional, if it’s set to 2 it means the match expression is a regex expression .

 

Set %line $fline(@name,*wild*match*,N,T).text

 

Gets the Nth matching line that matches the *wild*match*.

 

Sorting and filtering:

 

/window –s @name

 

This will make the @window sort itself automatically.

 

/filter –ww @name @name

 

This simple format is an example to show that you can use /filter’s powerful options to sort the @window, and change it. Please read more about it in the mirc’s help file, to take advantage of this ability.

 

Converting to .txt files:

 

/loadbuf @window file.txt

 

Will load all lines in the text file to the custom @window .

 

/savebuf @window file.txt

 

Will save the custom @window’s contents to the text file.

 

Retrieving size:

 

Set %lineNum $line(@name,0)

 

Will return the number of lines in the file.

 

Example:

 

Load the example to the remotes, and right click on a channel.

 

menu channel {

  @window Store data: {

    window -h @mychanneldata

    filter -cww $chan @mychanneldata

    iline @mychanneldata 1 $chan($chan).topic

  }

  @window Show data: {

    if ($window(@mychanneldata)) {

      echo -a Recorded channel topic: $line(@mychanneldata,1)

      filter -cwwg @mychanneldata @mychanneldata /^\* $/

      echo -a Number of channel events recorded: $line(@mychanneldata,0)

      echo -a Here's the last event in the channel: $line(@mychanneldata,$line(@mychanneldata,0))

      var %lineNum = $fline(@mychanneldata,$+(*,joined,*),1)

      echo -a Here's the first join event: $line(@mychanneldata,%lineNum)

      echo -a That appeared in line: %lineNum

    }

  }

  @window Remove data :{

    if ($window(@mychanneldata)) window -c @mychanneldata

  }

}