Forums Scripts & Popups Need help on a !read command

Greetings,

I need some help on a command which permits me to scan a text file for a username, if not found then add it.

if (!$read(C:\1Report/IMusers.txt,w,* $+ %msnimaddy)) { write C:\1Report/IMusers.txt %msnimaddy }

Seems like that should work, but it doesn't, that code still writes the variable containing the username %msnimaddy even if it already exists in the IMusers.txt file.

Your suggestions and help on that code snippt would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
MDA

Try $read(C:\1Report/IMusers.txt,s,%msnimaddy)

How is this file organised? Just a nickname per line, nothing else?

Btw you've typoed in your code if (!$read(C:\1Report/IMusers.txt,... should be \

if (!$read(C:\1Report\IMusers.txt,w,%msnimaddy)) { write C:\1Report/IMusers.txt %msnimaddy }

Oh yeah, you could also check /write with -s flag if you're gonna write anyway.

Greets

I don't know if it's filesystem dependant but it doesn't seem to matter here.

Oh yeah, I wasn't thinking clearly, I should get some sleep. *wink*

Seems to work even when using / rather than \

Greets

Greetings and thank you for responding,

The code listed works, the problem was found in acouple spaces that were buffered into the front of the %msnimaddy variable. Although the output sequential text file didn't show those buffered spaces in front of the corresponding %msnimaddy, each time the !read statement looked for a match, it didn't find it, because the file being written was ignoring those buffered spaces in the output of writing the %msnimaddy variable to that file.

By removing the hidden buffer character spaces in front of what I was trying to save, namely the pure %msnimaddy, I was able to isolate that variable, save and search for that variable correctly.

Example:

%msnimaddy [hidden buffer spaces x2]Testinjay@yahoo.com

Wouldn't find thru that !read routine a search for

@msnimaddy Testinjay@yahoo.com

And the !read-write statement would repeatedly write in that %msnimaddy as a new addition.

Although pulling up IMusers.txt would reveal:
Testinjay@yahoo.com
Testinjay@yahoo.com

Which for all purposes appear in the resulting IMusers.txt file to be identical.

Thanks for your feedback and comments previously,
MDA