Help with a multiple text replacement script

Even though this forum so far has been for sharing scripts and not for writing them, I was wondering if I could pick the brains of AHK experts ( and  come to mind right now), to figure something out.

I'm trying to put together a script to do multiple text replacements at a segment level, i.e., for the active segment only, so I can easily see what has been changed, without calling up the Find & Replace window.

I've managed to put together this script (silly examples included):

#r::
ClipSaved := ClipboardAll
Clipboard =
SendInput, ^a^c
ClipWait, 30
FixString := Clipboard
vList := " ;continuation section
(
dog perro

house casa
¿ ¿
/ /
, ,
? ?
. .
pie 2 pie2
m 2 m2
)"
Loop, Parse, vList, `n
{
oTemp := StrSplit(A_LoopField, "`t")
FixString := StrReplace(FixString, oTemp.1, oTemp.2)
}
oTemp := ""
Clipboard := FixString ; load the new string to clipboard
Sleep 200
Send ^v
Return

This works fine in segments with no tags, but when there are tags, they get stripped at some point during the replacement operation and the text that is pasted back into the segment has all the necessary replacements but no tags. Is there any way of preserving the tags in the clipboard?

I came up with a very clumsy workaround for this, which involves using Studio's Delete to Next Tag shortcut, so instead of Select All-Copy, the script would do Delete to Next Tag-Undo-Copy:

#r::
ClipSaved := ClipboardAll
Clipboard =
;SendInput, ^a^c
;ClipWait, 30
Send ^+D ;delete to next tag
Sleep 100
Send ^z ;undo
Sleep 50
Send ^c
ClipWait, 30
FixString := Clipboard
vList := " ;continuation section
(
organisation organization
¿ ¿
/ /
, ,
? ?
. .
pie 2 pie2
m 2 m2
)"
Loop, Parse, vList, `n
{
oTemp := StrSplit(A_LoopField, "`t")
FixString := StrReplace(FixString, oTemp.1, oTemp.2)
}
oTemp := ""
Clipboard := FixString ; load the new string to clipboard
Sleep 200
Send ^v
Return

While this also works in segments with no tags, I would like to optimize it.

My second question is: how would I go about creating a list of all these replacements (CSV? Excel?) and getting the script to take them from there instead of having to add them manually to the script? I've been reading up on arrays but I'm still far away from being able to implement what I need.

I have another simpler script attempt with just multiple StringReplace lines (see below), but again, that would require creating possibly hundreds of replacement lines and I imagine it's not the best solution.

#p:: 
Send, ^a
Send, ^c
StringReplace, clipboard, clipboard, dog, perro, All
StringReplace, clipboard, clipboard, cat, gato, All
StringReplace, clipboard, clipboard, raining, lloviendo, All
Send ^v
Return

So, any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Parents
  • Hi Nora,

    Since you use ClipboardAll at the start of your script, you know that it is different from Clipboard: ClipboardAll is binary, while Clipboard is just text.

    See https://autohotkey.com/docs/misc/Clipboard.htm

    When you use "FixString := Clipboard" in your script, you have already reduced your string to text, i.e. the tags are gone.

    The AutoHotKey webpage above indicates that "altering a binary-clipboard variable (by means such as StringReplace) will revert it to a normal variable, resulting in the loss of its clipboard data", so even if you use "FixString := ClipboardAll", subsequent StringReplace commands would reduce FixString to text.

    The webpage also states that  "binary-clipboard variables may be passed to functions by value (formerly they only worked ByRef)", so if you could figure out the binary format used you might be able to write your own routine to make changes to the clipboard data, but I suspect it wouldn't be all that easy.

    I have never tried to deal with this binary data, but maybe one of the AutoHotKey experts has some experience in this area ...

    Best regards,
    Bruce Campbell
    ASAP Language Services

  • Aaaahhh, thank you Bruce, that shows how little I know about programming. : )

    The script is not my own code, except for the very simple bits, I put it together from things I found here and there while trying to research this. I got a similar explanation (a bit over my head, really) from a helpful user of the AHK forum who was also trying to help me with this. He also mentioned something about binary clipboard contents and modifying that somehow, but I didn't even realize there was a difference between Clipboard and ClipboardAll. The possible solution to preserve the tags seems a bit overkill and too much effort for what I need to do, though (especially considering that I have no clue where to start to do that). Unless the segment is heavily tagged, it's just faster to replace the tags if needed, I guess.
Reply
  • Aaaahhh, thank you Bruce, that shows how little I know about programming. : )

    The script is not my own code, except for the very simple bits, I put it together from things I found here and there while trying to research this. I got a similar explanation (a bit over my head, really) from a helpful user of the AHK forum who was also trying to help me with this. He also mentioned something about binary clipboard contents and modifying that somehow, but I didn't even realize there was a difference between Clipboard and ClipboardAll. The possible solution to preserve the tags seems a bit overkill and too much effort for what I need to do, though (especially considering that I have no clue where to start to do that). Unless the segment is heavily tagged, it's just faster to replace the tags if needed, I guess.
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