Help on Sorting Numbers and Symbols

[Artek]

Hi! Is there anyone out there got an idea or willing to share a code on how to sort numbers and symbols in a text/mtext/attribute? I want to sort the numbers in numerical order and then affix the symbol "&" before the last number.

 

 

For example: I got this line in text/mtext/attribute value in this random order:

4, 3, 5, 2 & 1

OR

4, & 3, 5, 2, 1 (misplaced "&")

OR

4 3 5 2 1 (missing "," and "&")

 

 

Is it possible to re-arrange them in this numerical order, including the symbols "," and "&" (or add them if they're missing or misplaced) to look like this?

 

 

1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

 

 

I need to tidy up a lot of old drawings with texts typed in different formats and it's a total nightmare doing them.

 

Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks.

[pBe]

Is this limited to single digit numbers? nothing like this ---> "11, 12, 14, 13"

Will there be instances there are missing numbers? ---> "5, 4, 2, 1"

What about duplicates? "1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5"

 

No reply yet : anyhoo try this

 

(defun _sortto (str / nstr a b)
 (setq	nstr ""
a    (vl-sort
       (read (strcat "("
		     (vl-string-translate
		       ",&"
		       "  "
		       (strcase STR)
		     )
		     ")"
	     )
       )
       '<
     )
 )
 (while (and (setq b (Car a))
      (> (length a) 2)
 )
   (setq nstr (strcat nstr (itoa b) ", ")
  a    (cdr a)
   )
 )
 (strcat nstr (itoa (car a)) " & " (itoa (cadr a)))
)

 

_$ (_sortto "4, 3, 5, 2 & 1")

"1, 2, 3, 4 & 5"

_$ (_sortto "4 3 5 2 1")

"1, 2, 3, 4 & 5"

_$ (_sortto "4, & 3, 5, 2, 1")

"1, 2, 3, 4 & 5"

_$ (_sortto "14, 3, 5, 23 & 1")

"1, 3, 5, 14 & 23"

Edited May 30, 2014 by pBe

[Artek]

Hi pBE,

 

 

Thanks for your quick reply. To answer your questions:

 

 

 

 

Is this limited to single digit numbers? nothing like this ---> "11, 12, 14, 13" No. It's not limited to single digit numbers. Some of them are up to 4 digits.

Will there be instances there are missing numbers? ---> "5, 4, 2, 1" No. Only what's already there. But the "," and the "&" symbol could be missing.

What about duplicates? "1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5" No duplicates.

Cheers

[ymg3]

Artek,

 

How about posting a typical drawing that you need to process ?

 

Would remove some of the guess work.

 

ymg

[Artek]

Hi ymg3,

 

 

Thanks. It's just a normal line of text, mtext or attribute value with multiple numbers sometimes arranged in random orders. I've attached a sample drawing as requested. pBe's code seems to do what I'm looking for based on his sample tests but I'm struggling to fill in the missing lines.

Block Number.dwg

Edited May 30, 2014 by Artek
Removed repeating words.

[pBe]

Thanks. It's just a normal line of text, mtext or attribute value with multiple numbers sometimes arranged in random orders. I've attached a sample drawing as requested. pBe's code seems to do what I'm looking for based on his sample tests but I'm struggling to fill in the missing lines.

 

For the attributes, will you be using the routine specifically for this block name "Block Number"?

[Artek]

For the attributes, will you be using the routine specifically for this block name "Block Number"?

 

 

Yes. It's only the block named "Block Number" with that attribute value that needs sorting out. If it's possible to make a single code to work on three different objects (text/mtext/attributes) then that would be ideal. But if it's impossible, then I would rather have a routine that can update the attribute value because it's the most time consuming to do.

[pBe]

CODE UPDATED [June012014]

(defun c:sns ( / _sortto  ss i e dz)
;;;			pBe Jun2014			;;;
[color="blue"](setq dz (getvar 'Dimzin))(setvar 'Dimzin   [/color]
(defun _sortto (str / _roi nstr a b)
[color="blue"](setq _roi (lambda (v)
     ((if (Eq (type v) 'INT)
 itoa rtos) v)))[/color]
 
 (setq	nstr ""
[color="blue"]str  (vl-string-translate  "-" "." str)[/color]
a    (vl-sort
       (read
	 (strcat
	   "("
	   (vl-string-translate
	    [color="blue"] "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ,&!@#$%^*()_+=/\\<>{}[]|:;'\""
	     "                                                      "[/color] (Strcase str)
	   )
	   ")"
	 )
       )
       '<
     )
 )
 (while (and (setq b (Car a))
      (> (length a) 2)
 )
   (setq nstr (strcat nstr (_roi b) ", ")
  a    (cdr a)
   )
 )
 (if (>= (length a) 2)
 [color="blue"](vl-string-translate  "." "-"[/color] (strcat nstr (_roi (car a)) " & " (_roi (cadr a))))
   str)
)

(princ "\nSelect TEXT/MTEXT/ATTRIBUTE")
(if  (setq ss (ssget "_:L"
	      '((-4 . "<OR") (-4 . "<AND")
		(0 . "INSERT")(2 . "Block Number")
		(-4 . "AND>") (-4 . "<AND")
		(0 . "TEXT,MTEXT") (1 . "#*#")
		(-4 . "AND>")(-4 . "OR>")
	       )
       )
     )
 (repeat (setq i (sslength ss))
   (if	(eq "AcDbBlockReference"
    (vla-get-ObjectName
      (setq
	e (vlax-ename->vla-object (ssname ss (setq i (1- i))))
      )
    )
)
     (foreach att (vlax-invoke e 'GetAttributes)
(if (wcmatch (setq str (vla-get-textstring att))
	    [color="blue"] "#*#"[/color]
    )
  (Vla-put-textstring att (_sortto str))
)
     )
     (vla-put-textstring e (_sortto (vla-get-textstring e)))
   )
 )
 )[color="blue"](setvar 'Dimzin dz)[/color]
 (princ)
 )

Edited June 1, 2014 by pBe
UPDATED: remove _strans <does not make sense>

[Artek]

Wow!!! You're a genius pBe! It's absolutely bang on! Thank you very much.

[Artek]

Sorry to be a pain, pBe. While I was running your code, I just encountered an attribute with some long numbers being shortened by a hyphen like 34-37 and I got this error message: bad argument type for compare. Could this be easily fixed?

[pBe]

no worries Artek, its an easy fix , we just need to add more symbols to replace with space " " for comparison.

 

CODE UPDATED AT POST # 8

 

EDIT

 

shortened by a hyphen like 34-37

 

Hang on. does that mean you want to fill the missing numbers like in your example add 35 & 36 to make 34, 35, 36, 37?

[Artek]

No. It should remain exactly as 34-37. No need to fill the missing numbers.

[pBe]

No. It should remain exactly as 34-37. No need to fill the missing numbers.

 

CODE UPDATED AT POST # 8 [i hope it would be the last ]

 

Just a thought, its odd if you are going to use a "range" type of notation for some and not for others.

 

"1, 2, 3, 5-7 & 9" <--> "[b]1-3[/b], 5-7, & 9" <--> "1, 2, 3, [b]5 ,6, 7[/b] & 9" 

 

But that will open up a whole can of worms , perhaps lets just stay with what you already have Artek. Lucky for you i have time to play with the code.

 

HTH

Edited June 1, 2014 by pBe

[Artek]

You're a star pBe. I'm really glad that you're around to help me out. Thank you so much and my apologies again for the trouble.

[pBe]

You're a star pBe. I'm really glad that you're around to help me out. Thank you so much and my apologies again for the trouble.

 

You are welcome. Make sure you understand the code and learn from it. Otherwise it would be all for nothing.

 

Happy to help Artek.