Make startposition optional in FindString()

[Demivec]

I know this is a low priority request but a sensible one nonetheless.

FindString() is currently defined like this:

Code: Select all

Position = FindString(String$, StringToFind$, StartPosition)

Please change it to:

Code: Select all

Position = FindString(String$, StringToFind$ [, StartPosition]) ;StartPosition = 1 if not specified

It seems to me that FindString() is called with StartPosition = 1 at least half the time and this would simplify things a bit.

[blueznl]

+1

[Little John]

+1

In the old BASIC flavours that I know, startposition of Instr() has always been optional.
As long as it's not implemented in PB, I use this:

Code: Select all

Macro Instr (_source_, _search_, _p_=1)
   FindString(_source_, _search_, _p_)
EndMacro

Regards, Little John

[skywalk]

Yes please.

[Suirad]

how hard is it to add ", 1" to the end of a command?
why dont you just wrap it in another procedure if its that much of a hastle?

Code: Select all

Procedure fFindstring(string.s,stringtofind.s,startposition=1)
  ProcedureReturn FindString(string,stringtofind,startposition)
EndProcedure

[KJ67]

why dont you just wrap it in another procedure

Doing a wrapper with a procedure will give you extra overhead, Little John’s version with a macro is more efficient.

[blueznl]

Oh, it's a minor request, but it's true: most applications will use ,1 so why enforce millions of hits on thousands of keyboards, sore muscles and countless of kilojoules in energy wasted, all that energy used by the CPU to recompile because yet someone yet again has forgotten the ,1 and on top of it there's the electricity used to light up the room where the poor programmer is slaving his day away and neglecting his family for hour after hour (cumulative speaking, of course) because of the ,1 ?

You... you... you... energy waster!

[Fred]

[Kukulkan]

+1

[shadow]

+1

[Tenaja]

how hard is it to add ", 1" to the end of a command?
why dont you just wrap it in another procedure if its that much of a hastle?

If you require the 1, then you break all existing code. That's a lot of work. Maybe not all for PB, but for all of its users.

BTW, count me as a +1 for this, too.

[AND51]

—1


Why all the +1's ... ? I thought you want to omit the ,1 so actually you all should write -1 in this thread, shouldn't you?

(SCNR)

[PB]

Most apps don't use ,1 at all. Mine certainly don't! It depends on the app. The suggestion to drop it will break my sources just because you don't use it. Why is your code more important than mine? Use a simple macro and be done with it.

[kenmo]

+1

This wouldn't break any current code! It would simply remove a lot of ",1"s from future code.

[Little John]

Most apps don't use ,1 at all. Mine certainly don't! It depends on the app. The suggestion to drop it will break my sources just because you don't use it. Why is your code more important than mine? Use a simple macro and be done with it.

No!
Making StartPosition optional in FindString() will not break any existing code.