Old ASCII box making characters.
lazarus / 21-General

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OC DelGuy · 2021-02-05 01:02

I write a lot of output to TMemo boxes.
Sometimes I'd like to format some data inside little boxes which makes
it easier to understand and looks good.

Is there a way to make the old DOS ASCII code box characters appear in
a TMemo?

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egsuh · 2021-02-05 01:31

I can make it with Korean characters. Character codes may different
depending on your language. Find the ascii codes and try them if you
are using English OS.

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lucamar · 2021-02-05 01:55

Quote from: OC DelGuy on February 05, 2021, 02:02:34 amIs there a way
to make the old DOS ASCII code box characters appear in a TMemo?
Yes, but instead of the Extended ASCII you have to use the Unicode
ones ... but I don't know what code-points they have, sorry  They
should be easy to find, though.

Also, the font your memo is using (or the system fallback one) must
have the corresponding graphs.

ETA: Found'em! Unicode block U+2500-U+25FF; most any "charmap" type
program will show them to you

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OC DelGuy · 2021-02-05 04:08

Quote from: lucamar on February 05, 2021, 02:55:37 amQuote from: OC
DelGuy on February 05, 2021, 02:02:34 amIs there a way to make the old
DOS ASCII code box characters appear in a TMemo?
Yes, but instead of the Extended ASCII you have to use the Unicode
ones ... but I don't know what code-points they have, sorry  They
should be easy to find, though.

Also, the font your memo is using (or the system fallback one) must
have the corresponding graphs.

ETA: Found'em! Unicode block U+2500-U+25FF; most any "charmap" type
program will show them to you

How do you get to the Unicode Characters?  I know the chr(x) function,
but that's for ASCII.  What is the function for Unicode?

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skalogryz · 2021-02-05 04:37

Quote from: OC DelGuy on February 05, 2021, 05:08:34 amHow do you get
to the Unicode Characters?  I know the chr(x) function, but that's for
ASCII.  What is the function for Unicode?
It's a bit more complicated in case of TMemo.
Since it's using UTF8. Here's an example
Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]window.onload = function(){var x1 =
document.getElementById("main_content_section"); if (x1) { var x =
document.getElementsByClassName("geshi");for (var i = 0; i // these
are unicodesconst  BOX_Horz       = #$2500;  BOX_Right_Down = #$250C; 
BOX_Left_Down  = #$2510;  BOX_Vert       = #$2502;  BOX_Right_Up   =
#$2514;  BOX_Left_Up    = #$2518; function LikeAnASCII(const s:
string): string;var  ws : WideString;  i  : integer;begin  ws :=
UTF8Decode(s);  for i:=1 to length(ws) do    case ws[i] of     
'l','L': ws[i]:=BOX_Right_Up;      'j','J': ws[i]:=BOX_Left_Up;     
'-': ws[i]:=BOX_Horz;      '/': ws[i]:=BOX_Right_Down;      '\':
ws[i]:=BOX_Left_Down;      '|': ws[i]:=BOX_Vert;    end;  Result :=
UTF8Encode(ws);end; procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender:
TObject);var  ws : WideString;begin  Memo1.Clear;  // But we convert
unicodes into UTF8 for TMemo to handle it  Memo1.Lines.Add( Utf8Encode
(BOX_Right_Down+BOX_Horz+BOX_Horz+BOX_Horz+BOX_Horz+BOX_Left_Down)); 
Memo1.Lines.Add( Utf8Encode(BOX_Vert+' '+' '+' '+' '+BOX_Vert)); 
Memo1.Lines.Add( Utf8Encode(BOX_Vert+' '+' '+' '+' '+BOX_Vert)); 
Memo1.Lines.Add( Utf8Encode(BOX_Right_Up+BOX_Horz+BOX_Horz+BOX_Horz+BO
X_Horz+BOX_Left_Up));  // or one might want to use a handy function 
Memo1.Lines.Add( LikeAnASCII('/-------\ '));  Memo1.Lines.Add(
LikeAnASCII('|       |'));  Memo1.Lines.Add( LikeAnASCII('|      
|'));  Memo1.Lines.Add( LikeAnASCII('|       |'));  Memo1.Lines.Add(
LikeAnASCII('L-------J '));  // or just trust FPC to use UTF8 strings 
// but you might want to add {$codepage utf8} at the start of the
unit  Memo1.Lines.Add( '┌────┐');  Memo1.Lines.Add( '│    │'); 
Memo1.Lines.Add( '│    │');  Memo1.Lines.Add( '└────┘');end;     
PS: but honestly, i'd suggest to go with plus signs "+", pipes "|",
dashes "-" and underscores "_"

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lucamar · 2021-02-05 05:13

Quote from: OC DelGuy on February 05, 2021, 05:08:34 amHow do you get
to the Unicode Characters?  I know the chr(x) function, but that's for
ASCII.  What is the function for Unicode?
Use the normal notation for char constants:
MyChar := #$2500;
That "#$2500" means "the char whose (hexadecimal) code is 2500", i.e.
U+2500. Of course, MyChar has to be a WideChar for this to work

See: WideChar in the Reference Guide.

ETA: Yeah, as skalogryz already showed

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OC DelGuy · 2021-02-05 12:13

Quote from: skalogryz on February 05, 2021, 05:37:16 amQuote from: OC
DelGuy on February 05, 2021, 05:08:34 amHow do you get to the Unicode
Characters?  I know the chr(x) function, but that's for ASCII.  What
is the function for Unicode?
It's a bit more complicated in case of TMemo.
Since it's using UTF8. Here's an example
Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]window.onload = function(){var x1 =
document.getElementById("main_content_section"); if (x1) { var x =
document.getElementsByClassName("geshi");for (var i = 0; i // these
are unicodesconst  BOX_Horz       = #$2500;  BOX_Right_Down = #$250C; 
BOX_Left_Down  = #$2510;  BOX_Vert       = #$2502;  BOX_Right_Up   =
#$2514;  BOX_Left_Up    = #$2518; function LikeAnASCII(const s:
string): string;var  ws : WideString;  i  : integer;begin  ws :=
UTF8Decode(s);  for i:=1 to length(ws) do    case ws[i] of     
'l','L': ws[i]:=BOX_Right_Up;      'j','J': ws[i]:=BOX_Left_Up;     
'-': ws[i]:=BOX_Horz;      '/': ws[i]:=BOX_Right_Down;      '\':
ws[i]:=BOX_Left_Down;      '|': ws[i]:=BOX_Vert;    end;  Result :=
UTF8Encode(ws);end; procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender:
TObject);var  ws : WideString;begin  Memo1.Clear;  // But we convert
unicodes into UTF8 for TMemo to handle it  Memo1.Lines.Add( Utf8Encode
(BOX_Right_Down+BOX_Horz+BOX_Horz+BOX_Horz+BOX_Horz+BOX_Left_Down)); 
Memo1.Lines.Add( Utf8Encode(BOX_Vert+' '+' '+' '+' '+BOX_Vert)); 
Memo1.Lines.Add( Utf8Encode(BOX_Vert+' '+' '+' '+' '+BOX_Vert)); 
Memo1.Lines.Add( Utf8Encode(BOX_Right_Up+BOX_Horz+BOX_Horz+BOX_Horz+BO
X_Horz+BOX_Left_Up));  // or one might want to use a handy function 
Memo1.Lines.Add( LikeAnASCII('/-------\ '));  Memo1.Lines.Add(
LikeAnASCII('|       |'));  Memo1.Lines.Add( LikeAnASCII('|      
|'));  Memo1.Lines.Add( LikeAnASCII('|       |'));  Memo1.Lines.Add(
LikeAnASCII('L-------J '));  // or just trust FPC to use UTF8 strings 
// but you might want to add {$codepage utf8} at the start of the
unit  Memo1.Lines.Add( '┌────┐');  Memo1.Lines.Add( '│    │'); 
Memo1.Lines.Add( '│    │');  Memo1.Lines.Add( '└────┘');end;     
PS: but honestly, i'd suggest to go with plus signs "+", pipes "|",
dashes "-" and underscores "_"

Thanks.  After searching the internet for a while, this is the first
I've heard of "Utf8Encode".  This is exactly what I was looking for.