There are many times when you need to compare two strings, but want to use wild cards in the match - all last names that begin with 'St', etc.
Contributor: DAVID STIDOLPH
The following is a piece of code I got from Sean Stanley in Tallahassee Florida in C. I translated it into Delphi an am uploading it here for all to use. I have not tested it extensivly, but the original function has been tested quite thoughly.
I would love feedback on this routine - or peoples changes to it. I want to forward them to Sean to get him to release more tidbits like this.
{
This function takes two strings and compares them. The first string
can be anything, but should not contain pattern characters (* or ?).
The pattern string can have as many of these pattern characters as you want.
For example: MatchStrings('David Stidolph','*St*') would return True.
Orignal code by Sean Stanley in C
Rewritten in Delphi by David Stidolph
}
function MatchStrings(source, pattern: String): Boolean;
var
pSource: Array [0..255] of Char;
pPattern: Array [0..255] of Char;
function MatchPattern(element, pattern: PChar): Boolean;
function IsPatternWild(pattern: PChar): Boolean;
var
t: Integer;
begin
Result := StrScan(pattern,'*') <> nil;
if not Result then Result := StrScan(pattern,'?') <> nil;
end;
begin
if 0 = StrComp(pattern,'*') then
Result := True
else if (element^ = Chr(0)) and (pattern^ <> Chr(0)) then
Result := False
else if element^ = Chr(0) then
Result := True
else begin
case pattern^ of
'*': if MatchPattern(element,@pattern[1]) then
Result := True
else
Result := MatchPattern(@element[1],pattern);
'?': Result := MatchPattern(@element[1],@pattern[1]);
else
if element^ = pattern^ then
Result := MatchPattern(@element[1],@pattern[1])
else
Result := False;
end;
end;
end;
begin
StrPCopy(pSource,source);
StrPCopy(pPattern,pattern);
Result := MatchPattern(pSource,pPattern);
end