Pulling Text From a Memo Box Line by Line - database

Question

I need to go through a ton of data that is stored in a paradox table within a Memo field. I need to process this data line by line and process each line.
How can I tell Delphi to fetch each line in the memo field one by one?
Could I use #13#10 as a delimiter?

Answer 1

Assuming that what is in the memo field uses #13#10 as the line separator then I would use a TStringList, and the very useful Text property to split the memo field text into separate lines:
var
StringList: TStringList;
Line: string;
.....
StringList.Text := MemoFieldText;
for Line in StringList do
Process(Line);
Even if your memo field uses Unix linefeeds then this code will interpret the memo field correctly.

Answer 2

It depends on how the field is actually declared in Paradox. If it's a TMemoField, it's pretty easy:
var
SL: TStringList;
Line: string;
begin
SL := TStringList.Create;
try
SL.Text := YourMemoField.GetAsString;
for Line in SL do
// Process each line of text using `Line`
finally
SL.Free;
end;
end;
If it's a TBlobField, it's a little more complicated. You need to read the memo field using a TBlobStream, and load the content of that stream into a TStringList:
// For Delphi versions that support it:
procedure LoadBlobToStringList(const DS: TDataSet; const FieldName: string;
const SL: TStringList);
var
Stream: TStream;
begin
Assert(Assigned(SL), 'Create the stringlist for LoadBlobToStringList!');
SL.Clear;
Stream := DS.CreateBlobStream(DS.FieldByName(FieldName), bmRead);
try
SL.LoadFromStream(Stream);
finally
Stream.Free;
end;
end;
// For older Delphi versions that do not have TDataSet.CreateBlobStream
procedure LoadBlobToStringList(const DS: TDataSet; const TheField: TField;
const SL: TStringList);
var
BlobStr: TBlobStream;
begin
Assert(Assigned(SL), 'Create the stringlist for LoadBlobToStringList!');
SL.Clear;
BlobStr := TBlobStream.Create(DS.FieldByName(TheField), bmRead);
try
SL.LoadFromStream(BlobStr);
finally
BlobStr.Free;
end;
end;
// Use it
var
SL: TStringList;
Line: string;
begin
SL := TStringList.Create;
LoadBlobToStringList(YourTable, YourMemoFieldName, SL);
for Line in SL do
// Process each Line, which will be the individual line in the blob field
// Alternatively, for earlier Delphi versions that don't support for..in
// declare an integer variable `i`
for i := 0 to SL.Count - 1 do
begin
Line := SL[i];
// process line of text using Line
end;
end;