Reference parts of two files

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atkiwi
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 5:17 pm

Reference parts of two files

Post by atkiwi » Wed Jun 20, 2018 11:03 pm

Hello,

I need to automate creating a report and that the content of the report matches my desired output.

I have automated previous activities by having a benchmark text file somewhere and comparing it with the newly created text file. I used the sample from the advanced code actions that Ranorex has listed on their site. The difference this time is that the reports are not 100% the same. They are very similiar but each report has the date of when the report was created which fails the validation. I only need to validate a few strings in the text report so they don't have to match each other up to 99%, like they do now.

What would be the best approach to this solution. I read that maybe splitting the text into an array would be good but I don't know if that would be good for comparing two of the same strings against each other.

Thanks,
ATKiwi

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odklizec
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Posts: 7470
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2012 9:54 am
Location: Zilina, Slovakia

Re: Reference parts of two files

Post by odklizec » Thu Jun 21, 2018 7:39 am

Hi,

The easiest thing you can do, is to replace the date string in reference file, with the one created in new file. This is what I do in my tests. Before comparing both files, I'm just reading the date string from new file and then overwriting the date string in reference file. Only after that I'm comparing both files. If you need help with code for your reference file, please upload a sample file. Thanks.

I'm using this code, to get the date string from file:

Code: Select all

string pathToFile = "PathToFileString";
            string strOutput = @File.ReadAllText(pathToFile);
            //obtaining date string from strOutput, using regex pattern
            Match match = Regex.Match(strOutput, @regexPattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

	        // here we check the Match instance.
	        if (match.Success)
	        {
	            // finally, we get the group value and display it.
	            findString = match.Groups[0].Value;
	            Console.WriteLine(findString);
	        }
And this to replace date in ref file:

Code: Select all

            string pathToFile = "PathToFileString";
            replaceString = System.DateTime.Now.ToString("M/dd/yyyy");
            CodeModules.Common.ReplaceStringInFile(@pathToFile, findString, replaceString);
And here is the ReplaceStringInFile method:

Code: Select all

		/// <summary>
		/// This methods replaces reference string in file with new one
		/// </summary>
		/// <param name="pathToFile">path to file</param>
		/// <param name="findString">string to find</param>
		/// <param name="replaceString">replace string</param>
		public static void ReplaceStringInFile(string pathToFile, string findString, string replaceString)
		{
			string strFile = File.ReadAllText(@pathToFile);
			try
			{
				File.WriteAllText(@pathToFile, strFile.Replace(findString, replaceString));
			}
			catch (Exception e)
			{
				Report.Log(ReportLevel.Warn, "Write to file exception: ", e.ToString());
			}
		}	
Pavel Kudrys
Ranorex explorer at Descartes Systems

Please add these details to your questions:
  • Ranorex Snapshot. Learn how to create one >here<
  • Ranorex xPath of problematic element(s)
  • Ranorex version
  • OS version
  • HW configuration

atkiwi
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 5:17 pm

Re: Reference parts of two files

Post by atkiwi » Thu Jun 21, 2018 8:06 pm

Thanks for the response,

At a high level, I understand your approach. It's a little different for me because the report goes down to the time it was compile (down to the minute) and my understanding of C# isn't that great. If I could just get some clarity so I make sure I got this right.

Code: Select all

string pathToFile = "PathToFileString";
            string strOutput = @File.ReadAllText(pathToFile);
            //obtaining date string from strOutput, using regex pattern
            Match match = Regex.Match(strOutput, @regexPattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

           // here we check the Match instance.
           if (match.Success)
           {
               // finally, we get the group value and display it.
               findString = match.Groups[0].Value;
               Console.WriteLine(findString);
           }
This chunk reads all the text in pathToFile and looks for @regexPattern. @regexPattern needs to be specifically stated and should equal the string I'm looking for?
Once it finds @regexPattern it will assign all of those to an array called findString.

Code: Select all

string pathToFile = "PathToFileString";
            replaceString = System.DateTime.Now.ToString("M/dd/yyyy");
            CodeModules.Common.ReplaceStringInFile(@pathToFile, findString, replaceString);
This one is a bit confusing for me. pathToFile is listed again and I would think that it changes. This time it would be the path to the newly created report?




Attached is the sample reports that I need to compare.
Thanks,
ATKiwi
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odklizec
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Posts: 7470
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2012 9:54 am
Location: Zilina, Slovakia

Re: Reference parts of two files

Post by odklizec » Fri Jun 22, 2018 8:01 am

Hi,

Of course, pathToFile variable must be filled with the path pointing to ref report or newly created report.

As for the regex patter, the one which fits your need is this:

Code: Select all

((\d{2})\/(\d{2})\/(\d{4}))\s*((\d{2}):(\d{2}))
This should find the date/time string in report file.

The only remaining problem is the number of spaces between date and time. In my code, I need to replace just date, so I don't have to deal with spaces. I think that in your case, it would be easier to replace first date, then time. I mean doing the replace in two steps, instead of replacing date/time at once. So then you should use this regex for date:

Code: Select all

((\d{2})\/(\d{2})\/(\d{4}))
and this for time:

Code: Select all

((\d{2}):(\d{2}))
Pavel Kudrys
Ranorex explorer at Descartes Systems

Please add these details to your questions:
  • Ranorex Snapshot. Learn how to create one >here<
  • Ranorex xPath of problematic element(s)
  • Ranorex version
  • OS version
  • HW configuration