remove element from array

[tsolrm]

Hi, i've got a list in the form of:

nick 20

nick2 20

nick3 20

nick25 20

etc

It's a very large list. I need to delete a certain entry, say "nick2". I need this to be done as quick as possible.

This is what i've come up with. As far a i can see it will do the job but is there an easier way to do this?

Thanks

$Bans = FileRead ("Statistics.txt")
$Bans = StringSplit ($Bans, @LF)
$Bans = _ArrayToString ($Bans, "*")
$Bans = StringReplace ($Bans, "*nick2 ", "*")
$Bans = StringSplit ($Bans, "*", 2)
$Bans[0]=UBound ($Bans)-1
For $i = 1 to $Bans [0]
$Return = StringIsDigit (StringStripCR($Bans[$i]))
If $Return = 1 Then $Bans [$i] = ""
Next
$Bans = _ArrayToString ($Bans, "*")
$Bans = StringReplace ($Bans, "**", "*")
$Bans = StringSplit ($Bans, "*", 2)
$Bans[0]=UBound ($Bans)-1

_ArrayDisplay ($Bans)

Edited January 21, 2012 by tsolrm

[water]

Is it always "name-to-be-deleted 20" or can the rest of the record change?

How big is your file (MB, GB)?

[Melba23]

tsolrm,

I would do it like this:

#include <Array.au3>
#include <File.au3>

; Declare initial variables
Global $aBans
$sFile = "Statistics.txt"
$sDelete = "nick2"

; Read file
_FileReadToArray($sFile, $aBans)

; Just to show what you read
_ArrayDisplay($aBans)

; Find the offending name - note you need to use the partial search parameter
$iIndex = _ArraySearch($aBans, $sDelete, 1, 0, 0, 1)

; And if found - delete
If Not @error Then
    _ArrayDelete($aBans, $iIndex)
EndIf

; Just to show you it has been deleted
_ArrayDisplay($aBans)

; And rewrite the file - note how to avoid the count in the [0] element
_FileWriteFromArray($sFile, $aBans, 1)

All clear?

M23

[tsolrm]

Is it always "name-to-be-deleted 20" or can the rest of the record change?

How big is your file (MB, GB)?

its always in the form "nick number"

[water]

As speed matters I would avoid the _Array* functions.

If the size of the file is < 2GB (I think this is the limit for a string, but I will check) you can read the whole file to a variable and do a stringreplace and then rewrite the file.

[water]

its always in the form "nick number"

Does this mean the number changes or is it always "20"?

[tsolrm]

tsolrm,

I would do it like this:

#include <Array.au3>
#include <File.au3>

; Declare initial variables
Global $aBans
$sFile = "Statistics.txt"
$sDelete = "nick2"

; Read file
_FileReadToArray($sFile, $aBans)

; Just to show what you read
_ArrayDisplay($aBans)

; Find the offending name - note you need to use the partial search parameter
$iIndex = _ArraySearch($aBans, $sDelete, 1, 0, 0, 1)

; And if found - delete
If Not @error Then
    _ArrayDelete($aBans, $iIndex)
EndIf

; Just to show you it has been deleted
_ArrayDisplay($aBans)

; And rewrite the file - note how to avoid the count in the [0] element
_FileWriteFromArray($sFile, $aBans, 1)

All clear?

M23

clear indeed. Is _ArraySearch quicker then doing what i did?

[tsolrm]

Does this mean the number changes or is it always "20"?

Yes it changes

[water]

I would suggest to test Melba's code with your data. If you are satisfied with the speed stay with this solution. If not I'm sure speed can be enhanced.

[tsolrm]

Thank you guys

[tsolrm]

There is a possibility that there would be two "nick2" or more.

And I want to delete all of them. My code accounts for this but ArraySearch stops the search as soon as it finds the first nick2 doesn't it?

[Melba23]

tsolrm,

Put the _ArraySearch/Delete section in a loop until the search returns an error.

M23

[water]

Right. You would have to do _ArraySearch until you get -1 as return value.

Make sure to set parameter $iStart to the current record (= the return value of the previous _ArraySearch call)

[tsolrm]

Partial search wouldn't work properly here because if you are searching for "nick" for example then all of the elements in this case have "nick".

In reality one nickname could be contained within another.

[water]

If you are familiar with regular expressions you can read the file into a string, replace all occurences of "nick2 number@CRLF" using StringRegExpReplace and then write the file to disk.

[Melba23]

tsolrm,

Then please give us a valid set of data to work with. We cannot be expected to offer sensible help if you keep altering your requriements.

M23

[tsolrm]

tsolrm,

Then please give us a valid set of data to work with. We cannot be expected to offer sensible help if you keep altering your requriements.

M23

Well I suppose if I do a partial search for "nick " (with a space) than this will only find the entries that contain "nick 20".

[Spiff59]

If you'll be doing multiple deletes, then using the _Array functions wouldn't be the way to go.

As you'll pass through your data multiple times and execute multiple Redims.

Maybe do it manually like here: