find and replace multiple values in vba

Question

I am trying to perform this task in Microstation using VBA. I want to use it to find and replace multiple numbers in the drawing.

I know the program generally, however I am having trouble putting this together. I have 2 variables.

Thank you in advance and sorry for the badly written code. Just getting used to VBA!

Sub main()
    Dim Find_text () As string = split ("150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220")
    Dim Replace_text () As string = split ("15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22")

    For i As Integer = 0 To Find_text.length - 1
       'I will write my find and replace code here
    Next
End Sub

Answer 1

You can use function InStr() to find substring in string and function Replace() to replace found string with replace_string

Sub main()

Dim Find_text() As String
Dim Replace_text() As String

Dim str As String

str = "test 150 test 160 test 170 test 200 test 220"

Find_text = Split("150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220")
Replace_text = Split("15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22")

For i = 0 To UBound(Find_text)
    For j = 0 To UBound(Replace_text)
        If InStr(str, Find_text(j)) > 0 Then
            str = Replace(str, Find_text(j), Replace_text(j))
        End If
    Next
Next

MsgBox str

End Sub

Answer 2

The trick is to use the Microstation API to get a list of elements to operate on. You can use .GetSelectedElements or .Scan depending on how you want your tool to work. As you said you are just getting used to vba I have heavily commented the code below.

Other gotchas include text elements and text nodes (multi line text) need to be handled differently, and don't forget to .Rewrite the element once you have modified it.

Option Explicit

Sub replaceText()


    Dim findText() As String
    Dim replaceText() As String

    'set find and replace
    findText = Split("10 20 30 40 50")
    replaceText = Split("a b c d e")

    'guard against unequal length searches
    If UBound(findText) <> UBound(replaceText) Then
        MsgBox "Find and replace are not equal lengths"
        Exit Sub
    End If

    ' Scan Criteria are needed when looking for elements in a model
    ' Set up scan criteria to only include text types
    Dim eSC As New ElementScanCriteria
    eSC.ExcludeAllTypes
    eSC.IncludeType msdElementTypeText      'text element
    eSC.IncludeType msdElementTypeTextNode  'multiple line text element

    Dim model As ModelReference
    Set model = ActiveModelReference

    ' if you need to loop through multiple models you could use this
    ' Set model = ActiveDesignFile.Models(i)

    ' Element Enumerator is a list of elements
    Dim elements As ElementEnumerator

    'scan active model for text
    Set elements = model.Scan(eSC)

    ' the elements could also be retrieved using
    ' Set elements = model.GetSelectedElements

    ' iterate through element set
    ' If there is another element in the list then
    ' MoveNext sets elements.Current to the next element and returns true
    ' otherwise it returns false and the loop exits.
    Do While elements.MoveNext

        Dim i As Integer
        Dim textNodeI As Integer
        Dim tempText As String

        ' elements.Current is a generic element
        ' we need to check its type to handle it correctly
        If elements.Current.IsTextElement Then

            ' access the generic element using the text element interface
            With elements.Current.AsTextElement

                '.text here refers to elements.Current.AsTextElement.text as specified by the With statement
                tempText = .text

                'split is 0 indexed
                For i = 0 To UBound(findText)
                    tempText = Replace(tempText, findText(i), replaceText(i))
                Next

                'set the elements text to the replaced text
                .text = tempText

                'rewrite the text element to the model
                .Rewrite
            End With

        ElseIf elements.Current.IsTextNodeElement Then
            With elements.Current.AsTextNodeElement

                ' TextNodes have an array of TextLines (1 indexed)
                For textNodeI = 1 To .TextLinesCount

                    'same as for text but for each line of node
                    tempText = .TextLine(textNodeI)
                    For i = 0 To UBound(findText)
                        tempText = Replace(tempText, findText(i), replaceText(i))
                    Next
                    .TextLine(textNodeI) = tempText

                Next

                ' Rewrite the text node after you have replaced each line.
                .Rewrite
            End With
        End If
    Loop

End Sub