Identify special character in a string

[kiffab]

Hi

I'm trying to obtain a distinct list of special characters a particular field in my database.

In SQL I am using the WHERE clause:

LIKE '%[^0-9a-zA-Z ]%'

What I need to do is loop through the results and grab only the special characters contained within so I can have a full list of the characters and send them to a supplier.

Can anyone recommend a quick way to do this? I can export my SQL results to a text file so no requirement for database connectivity.

An example could be

\xxxxxx

\xxx?xxx

^xxx^xxx

Thanks

[water]

Looks like a job for regular expressions: Function StringRegExp

[water]

My first try on regular expressions:

#include <Array.au3>
$aMatches = StringRegExp("/xxx'xÄxx", "[^0-9a-zA-Z]", 3)
_ArrayDisplay($aMatches)

[guinness]

My first try on regular exp<b></b>ressi&#111;ns:

#include <Array.au3>
$aMatches = StringRegExp("/xxx'xÄxx", "[^0-9a-zA-Z]", 3)
_ArrayDisplay($aMatches)

Looks fine to me or you could use w, but this includes "_" (underscore) so best to stick with that class.

[PhoenixXL]

#include <Array.au3>

$sText = "¤ Hello THere " & @CR
Local $aRet = StringRegExp( $sText, "([^\w\h\v]+)", 3 ) ;Matches any thing other than a word, horizontal/vertical space.
_ArrayDisplay( $aRet )

Edited January 17, 2013 by PhoenixXL

[kiffab]

Thanks for the quick response guys.

Since I am getting a blank file I am clearly doing something wrong........

#include <Array.au3>
#include <file.au3>

$file = @SCRIPTDIR & "\textin.txt"
$out = @SCRIPTDIR & "\out.txt"
FileDelete($out)

Dim $aRecords
If Not _FileReadToArray($file, $aRecords) Then
   MsgBox(4096,"Error", " Error reading log to Array     error:" & @error)
   Exit
EndIf
For $x = 1 to $aRecords[0]
    $char = StringRegExp($aRecords[$x], "([^\w\h\v]+)", 3)
    FileWriteLine($out, $char)
Next

[water]

Yes. StringRegExp returns an array.

FileWriteLine($out, _ArrayToString($char, ""))

should help

Edited January 17, 2013 by water

[kiffab]

fantastic, you guys have saved me hours =)

thanks.

[water]

[guinness]

kiffab,

Avoid using Dim if you can. Actually, there is no reason why Dim should be used.