Hi, everyone.

Silly question, but I'm working on a new door and it's been a long while since I've picked up the compiler. I'm using Borland Pascal and I keep getting an "Error 39: Ordinal expression expected" for this line of code:

Case UTemp Of (UTemp is a string)

Is there something that I forgot about the Case statement? :>

Later,
Sean

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Is there something that I forgot about the Case statement? :>

Rather about ordinal expressions. A string can never be an OE. Try Char, Byte or something more ordinal.

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* Origin: news://felten.yi.org (2:203/2)

Hi Sean,

getting an "Error 39: Ordinal expression expected" for this line of code:

Case UTemp Of (UTemp is a string)

Is there something that I forgot about the Case statement? :>

A string is not an ordinal value, it is a structured value. Depending on the contents of the string, you might consider

Case UTemp[1] Of

or rewrite your code to calculate some numeric value from your string and use that value in the Case ... Of.

Only modern compilers (like Delphi) accept strings for case selectors.

Cheers,
Roelof Beverdam

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*** Quoting Björn Felten from a message to Sean Dennis ***

Rather about ordinal expressions. A string can never be an OE. Try Char, Byte or something more ordinal.

Embarrasingly enough, I discovered that out after I wrote the message by looking it up online. ;) Turns out that Case..Of can only use ordinal expressions. A little code wrangling and all works out. However, now I'm having another problem.

I'm writing a little BBS list door for my system. Nothing too hard. But I'm getting a type mismatch error. Let me explain a little more:

Here's the type and how I declare it:

Type
BBS = Record
BoardName : String[70];
SysopName : String[40];
Software : String[30];
Phone : String[20];
Telnet : String[30];
Hours : String[15];
URL : String[68];
Networks : String[68];
Comments : String[68];
End;

Var
BBSFile : File of BBS;
BBSR : BBS;

(BBSR is short for BBSRecord)

Now, when I first tried to use this:

Inpt(Temp, 40, 14, 9);
BBSR.SysopName := Temp;

(Inpt is a special routine for input in the doorkit I'm using. The Temp variable is a string.)

When I did:

Inpt(BBSR.SysopName, 40, 14, 9);

I got "Type mismatch" errors. Okay, so I worked around it using the above routine.

When I tried:

Write(BBSFile, BBSR.BoardName);

I got the error again.

Forgive my silly questions as I haven't touched the compiler in about a year really on a new project, but why am I getting those errors when that particular
variable is declared as a string, yet I can't write it to a file of the same type?

I have problems grasping simple solutions now due to a variety of causes, but I'm just not understanding why it's not working. I'm sure it's something stupid that I'm not seeing.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Sean

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Inpt(BBSR.SysopName, 40, 14, 9);

You obviously declared the first param for Inpt as 'var S:string'. That means that you cannot pass it a string[40]. And since I guess you are using the
Inpt procedure for universal input, with different string lengths, your work about is probably the best way to do it.

Write(BBSFile, BBSR.BoardName);

Since you have declared BBSFile to be a file of BBS you can only write variables of type BBS to it. BBSR is of that type, BBSR.BoardName is not, it's a string[70].

Forgive my silly questions

There are no silly questions, only silly answers! 8-)

Oh, and don't forget to use 'with BBSR do...' rather than writing 'BBSR.' in
front of every record part, it makes it so much easier to read the program later on, IMHO.

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* Origin: news://felten.yi.org (2:203/2)

*** Quoting Björn Felten from a message to Sean Dennis ***

That means that you cannot pass it a string[40]. And since I guess

Ah! *the light turns on*

Okay, I was trying to be good and save room in memory. I can go fix that then.

Thanks for the advice! Wow, I feel much happier now. ;) I spent about two hours last night working on the display, etc. I'm taking my time with this door, even though it's simple, it takes a massive effort on my part to program because it's hard for me to grasp things initially (but once I get them, it's a
lot easier).

Oh, and don't forget to use 'with BBSR do...' rather than writing 'BBSR.' in front of every record part, it makes it so much easier to
read the program lateron, IMHO.

What exactly do you mean? I'm not quite sure-in writing the file or what? I don't know a lot of the shortcuts in Pascal, but I'm hoping that my skills will
improve enough for me to figure things out. ;) I just started using included files (for my help files and such-makes the main source code much easier to read).

Thanks again for your help. Much appreciated!

Later,
Sean

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What exactly do you mean?

Rather than writing something like this:

BBSR.BoardName:=...
... some code...
BBSR.SysopName:=...
... some code...
BBSR.Software:=...
... some code...
BBSR.Phone:=...
... some code...
BBSR.Telnet:=...
... some code...

...you do it like this:

with BBSR do begin
BoardName:=...
... some code...
SysopName:=...
... some code...
Software:=...
... some code...
Phone:=...
... some code...
Telnet:=...
... some code...
end;

Thanks again for your help. Much appreciated!

No problem, just keep 'em coming! :)

---
* Origin: news://felten.yi.org (2:203/2)

*** Quoting Björn Felten from a message to Sean Dennis ***

No problem, just keep 'em coming! :)

I have a good one, but it might be kinda long to post in here. Basically, I'm having problems with the search "engine" I put into the program. I can now add
and write to the file, thankfully. Let me get a few other things done and then
we can work on the search stuff. That's really not that much for me to fix-it's just a stupid error on my part somewhere.

Thankfully, it DOES work. I'm suprised at how much I actually remember.

Later,
Sean

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Quoting Sean Dennis to All <=-

Silly question, but I'm working on a new door and it's been a long
while since I've picked up the compiler. I'm using Borland Pascal and
I keep getting an "Error 39: Ordinal expression expected" for this
line of code:
Case UTemp Of (UTemp is a string)

Is there something that I forgot about the Case statement? :>

Can't use string. But you could convert the string
into a number value if needed or its ascii value.
Depending on what your need is.



... Did I ever tell you that story? - Londo
--- Fringe BBS
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Quoting Sean Dennis to Björn Felten <=-

That means that you cannot pass it a string[40]. And since I guess

Ah! *the light turns on*

Okay, I was trying to be good and save room in memory. I can go fix
that then.
Thanks for the advice! Wow, I feel much happier now. ;) I spent
about two hours last night working on the display, etc. I'm taking my time with this door, even though it's simple, it takes a massive
effort on my part to program because it's hard for me to grasp things initially (but once I get them, it's a lot easier).

If you want to save memory use pointers :)

Oh, and don't forget to use 'with BBSR do...' rather than writing 'BBSR.' in front of every record part, it makes it so much easier to
read the program lateron, IMHO.

What exactly do you mean? I'm not quite sure-in writing the file or
what? I don't know a lot of the shortcuts in Pascal, but I'm hoping
that my skills will improve enough for me to figure things out. ;) I
just started using included files (for my help files and such-makes
the main source code much easier to read).
Thanks again for your help. Much appreciated!

You ever read my pascal tutorial files I did in Advnet
a few times over the years in AdventureNet programming
echo?




... Thats a very Russian attitude. I approve. - Lt. Cmdr. Ivanova
--- Fringe BBS
* Origin: EWOG II - The Fringe - 904-733-1721 (1:112/91)

Quoting Sean Dennis to Björn Felten <=-

No problem, just keep 'em coming! :)

I have a good one, but it might be kinda long to post in here.
Basically, I'm having problems with the search "engine" I put into the program. I can now add and write to the file, thankfully. Let me get
a few other things done and then we can work on the search stuff.
That's really not that much for me to fix-it's just a stupid error on
my part somewhere.
Thankfully, it DOES work. I'm suprised at how much I actually

The secret of searching for things is the Pos command.
If you need help beyond that holler.



... He's more human than the human contingent on the station. (re: Londo)
--- Fringe BBS
* Origin: EWOG II - The Fringe - 904-733-1721 (1:112/91)

I have a good one, but it might be kinda long to post in here. Basically, I'm >having problems with the search "engine" I put into the program. I can now ad >and write to the file, thankfully. Let me get a few other things done and the
we can work on the search stuff. That's really not that much for me to fix-it's just a stupid error on my part somewhere.
Thankfully, it DOES work. I'm suprised at how much I actually remember.

Well you can always posting using the web interface here :) Also are you storing the data in a sequential or random data file?

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Hello, Robert.

On 07 May 05 at 18:47, Robert Wolfe wrote to Sean Dennis:

Well you can always posting using the web interface here :) Also are
you storing the data in a sequential or random data file?

It's not the posting, it's the length. It could've broken some mail processors
... the problem's been solved, actually.

Later,
Sean

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