Translate metadata to field content

[Niggemann, Bernd]

Hi Jacque,

Jacque wrote:


 > put the styledText of fld 1 into tDataA
 > put 0 into tTotalChars
 > put 0 into tStartChar
  >repeat with i = 1 to the number of elements in tDataA
    >put tDataA[i]["runs"] into tRunsA
    >repeat with j = 1 to the number of elements in tRunsA
    > put tRunsA[j] into tRunA
      >add the num of chars in tRunA["text"] to tTotalChars
     > if tRunA["metadata"] is pTag then
        >if tStartChar = 0 then
         > put tTotalChars - len(tRunA["text"]) + 3 into tStartChar
       > end if
      >else if tStartChar > 0 then
        >put tTotalChars - len(tRunA["text"]) into tEndChar
        >select char tStartChar to tEndChar of fld 1
        >select empty
        >set the backcolor of char tStartChar to tEndChar of fld 1 to "yellow"
        >return tStartChar & comma & tEndChar
     >end if
    >end repeat
  >end repeat


the styledArray does not include the returns at the end of a line. You have to add them if you address chars/codeUnits of the whole text. Initializing tTotalChars with -1 lets you add 1 to tTotalChars in each iterations of the outer repeat loop. -1 because the first line is not has no preceding return.
Also add 1 to calculate tStartChar otherwise you point to the last char of preceding run.

  put -1 into tTotalChars -- note -1
  put 0 into tStartChar
  repeat with i = 1 to the number of elements in tDataA
    add 1 to tTotalChars -- account for returns
    put tDataA[i]["runs"] into tRunsA

-- note add 1
put tTotalChars - len(tRunA["text"]) +1 into tStartChar -- mark char 1 of target

Additionally in your implementation if the target run with the metadata you look for is the last run of the array nothing is returned.

Kind regards
Bernd