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From: eagle@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Daniel L'Hommedieu)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: case (string) of
Message-ID: <1991Jun4.012145.8522@ncsu.edu>
Date: 4 Jun 91 01:21:45 GMT
References: <1991Jun3.222059.16125@javelin.sim.es.com>
Sender: news@ncsu.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: North Carolina State University
Lines: 30

tpehrson@javelin.sim.es.com (Tim Clinkenpeel) writes:
>so i can't use case for strings, eh?  what are my alternatives?  a list of
>if-thens?  (tp5.0)

I liked to use a single string of all of the possibilities, evenly
spaced.  That way, you can divide by the width of each entry (the same
for all) to then use a case.  For example (please forgive if I use "C"
grammar, because that's my primary language now):
  var possible,test:string;
      found:integer;
  begin
    possible="DIR  CLS  SET  MATCH";
      { notice that all are 5 wide! }
    test="SET";
    found=(pos(test,possible)/5);
    if (found<>0) then
      case found of
        1: begin /*perform stuff for DIR here*/ end;
        2: begin /*perform stuff for CLS here*/ end;
      ....

you get the picture, no doubt.

Daniel L'Hommedieu
eagle@catt.ncsu.edu
--
As the sweat poured down my forehead, I quickly glanced at the clock to
see how much longer I had to complete my exam.  The two hours left would
seem like days.  As each precious second passed, I decided I should make
up new math rules.  Two hours is enough to be creative, isn't it?