TChilkatStringBuilder Delphi ActiveX Reference Documentation

TChilkatStringBuilder

Current Version: 9.5.0.97

A simple class for building strings. (Represents a mutable string of characters.)

Note: This class was introduced in Chilkat v9.5.0.58.

Importing the Chilkat ActiveX into Delphi

Important: When upgrading to a new version of Chilkat, make sure to re-imported ActiveX DLL into Delphi to regenerate the files described below.

Two things are required to use an ActiveX in Delphi:

  1. The ActiveX DLL needs to be registered via regsvr32 on the system where the Delphi application runs. See How To Register ActiveX DLLs for detailed information.
  2. See also: ActiveX Registration Tutorial
  3. The ActiveX component needs to be "imported". Use the Delphi Import Component Wizard to import the Chilkat type library. This creates the following files: Chilkat_v9_5_0_TLB.pas and Chilkat_v9_5_0_TLB.dcr. The Chilkat_v9_5_0_TLB.pas should be added to your project.

To import the Chilkat type library, do the following:

  1. In the Delphi RAD Studio, select the menu item "Component" --> "Import a Type Library".
  2. Find "Chilkat ActiveX v9.5.0" in the list and select it. This will only appear in the list if the ChilkatAx-9.5.0-win32.dll (or ChilkatAx-9.5.0-x64.dll) has been registered w/ regsvr32.
  3. Check the "Generate Component Wrappers" checkbox.
  4. Select a directory where the unit files (.pas and .dcr) should be generated.
  5. Select "Create Unit" and then "Finish".
  6. Add the .pas to your Delphi project.

To use a Chilkat ActiveX object in your Delphi code, add "Chilkat_v9_5_0_TLB" to the "uses" statement. For example:

uses
  Winapi.Windows, Winapi.Messages, System.SysUtils, System.Variants, System.Classes, Vcl.Graphics,
  Vcl.Controls, Vcl.Forms, Vcl.Dialogs, Vcl.StdCtrls, Chilkat_v9_5_0_TLB;

Object Creation

var
obj: TChilkatStringBuilder;
...
begin
obj := TChilkatStringBuilder.Create(Self);
...
// When finished, free the object instance.
obj.Free();

Properties

IntValue
property IntValue: Integer
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Returns the content of the string converted to an integer.

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IsBase64
property IsBase64: Integer readonly
Introduced in version 9.5.0.76

Returns 1 if the content contains only those characters allowed in the base64 encoding. A base64 string is composed of characters 'A'..'Z', 'a'..'z', '0'..'9', '+', '/' and it is often padded at the end with up to two '=', to make the length a multiple of 4. Whitespace is ignored.

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LastBinaryResult
property LastBinaryResult: OleVariant readonly

The binary data returned by the last (binary data returning) method called. Only available if Chilkat.Global.KeepBinaryResult is set to 1. This provides a means for obtaining large varbinary results in the SQL Server environment (where limitations exist in getting large amounts of data returned by method calls, but where temp tables can be used for binary properties).

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LastMethodSuccess
property LastMethodSuccess: Integer

Indicate whether the last method call succeeded or failed. A value of 1 indicates success, a value of 0 indicates failure. This property is automatically set for method calls. It is not modified by property accesses. The property is automatically set to indicate success for the following types of method calls:

  • Any method that returns a string.
  • Any method returning a Chilkat object, binary bytes, or a date/time.
  • Any method returning a standard boolean status value where success = 1 and failure = 0.
  • Any method returning an integer where failure is defined by a return value less than zero.

Note: Methods that do not fit the above requirements will always set this property equal to 1. For example, a method that returns no value (such as a "void" in C++) will technically always succeed.

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LastStringResult
property LastStringResult: WideString readonly

The string return value of the last (string returning) method called. Only available if Chilkat.Global.KeepStringResult is set to 1. This provides a means for obtaining large string results in the SQL Server environment (where limitations exist in getting long strings returned by method calls, but where temp tables can be used for string properties).

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LastStringResultLen
property LastStringResultLen: Integer readonly

The length, in characters, of the string contained in the LastStringResult property.

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Length
property Length: Integer readonly
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

The number of characters of the string contained within this instance.

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Methods

Append
function Append(value: WideString): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Appends a copy of the specified string to this instance.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendBd
function AppendBd(binData: TChilkatBinData; charset: WideString; offset: Integer; numBytes: Integer): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.64

Appends the contents of binData. The charset specifies the character encoding of the bytes contained in binData. The charset can be any of the supported encodings listed at Chilkat Supported Character Encodings. To append the entire contents of binData, set offset and numBytes equal to zero. To append a range of binData, set the offset and numBytes to specify the range.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendEncoded
function AppendEncoded(binaryData: OleVariant; encoding: WideString): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Appends binary data using the encoding specified by encoding, such as "base64", "hex", etc.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendInt
function AppendInt(value: Integer): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Appends the string representation of a specified 32-bit signed integer to this instance.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendLine
function AppendLine(value: WideString; crlf: Integer): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.65

Appends the value followed by a CRLF or LF to the end of the curent StringBuilder object. If crlf is 1, then a CRLF line ending is used. Otherwise a LF line ending is used.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendRandom
function AppendRandom(numBytes: Integer; encoding: WideString): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.96

Append numBytes random bytes encoded according to encoding. encoding can be "hex", "hex_lower", "base64", "base64url", or any other encoding supported by Chilkat.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendSb
function AppendSb(sb: TChilkatStringBuilder): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Appends the contents of another StringBuilder to this instance.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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AppendUuid
function AppendUuid(lowerCase: Integer): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.93

Generates and appends a random GUID/UUID such as 63c35f38-2b5f-4600-b3da-3ddee86d62b3. If lowerCase is 1, then the hex values use lowercase ("a" - "f"). If lowerCase is 0 then uppercase is used ("A" - "F").

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples
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Clear
procedure Clear();
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Removes all characters from the current StringBuilder instance.

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Contains
function Contains(str: WideString; caseSensitive: Integer): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Returns 1 if the str is contained within this object. For case sensitive matching, set caseSensitive equal to 1. For case-insensitive, set caseSensitive equal to 0.

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ContainsWord
function ContainsWord(word: WideString; caseSensitive: Integer): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.69

Returns 1 if the word is contained within this object, but only if it is a whole word. This method is limited to finding whole words in strings that only contains characters in the Latin1 charset (i.e. iso-8859-1 or Windows-1252). A whole word can only contain alphanumeric chars where the alpha chars are restricted to those of the Latin1 alpha chars. (The underscore character is also considered part of a word.)

For case sensitive matching, set caseSensitive equal to 1. For case-insensitive, set caseSensitive equal to 0.

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ContentsEqual
function ContentsEqual(str: WideString; caseSensitive: Integer): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Returns 1 if the contents of this object equals the str. Returns 0 if unequal. For case insensitive equality, set caseSensitive equal to 0.

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ContentsEqualSb
function ContentsEqualSb(sb: TChilkatStringBuilder; caseSensitive: Integer): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Returns 1 if the contents of this object equals the sb. Returns 0 if unequal. For case insensitive equality, set caseSensitive equal to 0.

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Decode
function Decode(encoding: WideString; charset: WideString): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Decodes and replaces the contents with the decoded string. The encoding can be set to any of the following strings: "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable" (or "qp"), "url", "base32", "Q", "B", "url_rc1738", "url_rfc2396", "url_rfc3986", "url_oauth", "uu", "modBase64", or "html" (for HTML entity encoding). The full up-to-date list of supported binary encodings is available at the link entitled "Supported Binary Encodings" below.

Note: This method can only be called if the encoded content decodes to a string. The charset indicates the charset to be used in intepreting the decoded bytes. For example, the charset can be "utf-8", "utf-16", "iso-8859-1", "shift_JIS", etc.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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DecodeAndAppend
function DecodeAndAppend(value: WideString; encoding: WideString; charset: WideString): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.87

Decodes a binary encoded string, where the binary encoding (such as "url", "hex", "base64", etc.) is specified by encoding, and the underlying charset encoding (such as "utf-8", "windows-1252", etc.) is specified by charset. The decoded string is appended to this object.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples
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Encode
function Encode(encoding: WideString; charset: WideString): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Encodes to base64, hex, quoted-printable, URL encoding, etc. The encoding can be set to any of the following strings: "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable" (or "qp"), "url", "base32", "Q", "B", "url_rc1738", "url_rfc2396", "url_rfc3986", "url_oauth", "uu", "modBase64", or "html" (for HTML entity encoding). The full up-to-date list of supported binary encodings is available at the link entitled "Supported Binary Encodings" below.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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EndsWith
function EndsWith(substr: WideString; caseSensitive: Integer): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Returns 1 if the string ends with substr. Otherwise returns 0. The comparison is case sensitive if caseSensitive is 1, and case insensitive if caseSensitive is 0.

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EntityDecode
function EntityDecode(): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Decodes HTML entities. See HTML entities for more information about HTML entities.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples
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GetAfterBetween
function GetAfterBetween(searchAfter: WideString; beginMark: WideString; endMark: WideString): WideString;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Begin searching after the 1st occurrence of searchAfter is found, and then return the substring found between the next occurrence of beginMark and the next occurrence of endMark.

Returns a zero-length WideString on failure

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GetAfterFinal
function GetAfterFinal(marker: WideString; removeFlag: Integer): WideString;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Returns the substring found after the final occurrence of marker. If removeFlag is 1, the marker and the content that follows is removed from this content.

If the marker is not present, then the entire string is returned. In this case, if removeFlag is 1, this object is also cleared.

Returns a zero-length WideString on failure

More Information and Examples
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GetAsString
function GetAsString(): WideString;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Returns the contents as a string.

Returns a zero-length WideString on failure

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GetBefore
function GetBefore(marker: WideString; removeFlag: Integer): WideString;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Returns the substring found before the 1st occurrence of marker. If removeFlag is 1, the content up to and including the marker is removed from this object's contents.

If the marker is not present, then the entire string is returned. In this case, if removeFlag is 1, this object is also cleared.

Returns a zero-length WideString on failure

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GetBetween
function GetBetween(beginMark: WideString; endMark: WideString): WideString;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Returns the substring found between the 1st occurrence of beginMark and the next occurrence of endMark.

Returns a zero-length WideString on failure

More Information and Examples
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GetDecoded
function GetDecoded(encoding: WideString): OleVariant;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Decodes and returns the decoded bytes. The encoding can be set to any of the following strings: "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable" (or "qp"), "url", "base32", "Q", "B", "url_rc1738", "url_rfc2396", "url_rfc3986", "url_oauth", "uu", "modBase64", or "html" (for HTML entity encoding). The full up-to-date list of supported binary encodings is available at the link entitled "Supported Binary Encodings" below.

Returns a zero-length byte array (as an OleVariant) on failure.
An empty array will have a VarArrayHighBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

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GetEncoded
function GetEncoded(encoding: WideString; charset: WideString): WideString;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Returns the string contents encoded in an encoding such as base64, hex, quoted-printable, or URL-encoding. The encoding can be set to any of the following strings: "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable" (or "qp"), "url", "base32", "Q", "B", "url_rc1738", "url_rfc2396", "url_rfc3986", "url_oauth", "uu", "modBase64", or "html" (for HTML entity encoding). The full up-to-date list of supported binary encodings is available at the link entitled "Supported Binary Encodings" below.

Note: The Encode method modifies the content of this object. The GetEncoded method leaves this object's content unmodified.

Returns a zero-length WideString on failure

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GetHash
function GetHash(algorithm: WideString; encoding: WideString; charset: WideString): WideString;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.91

Returns the hash of the contents of this object. The algorithm is the hash algorithm, and can be "sha1", "sha256", "sha384", "sha512", "sha3-224", "sha3-256", "sha3-384", "sha3-512", "md2", "md5", "ripemd128", "ripemd160","ripemd256", or "ripemd320". The encoding can be "base64", "modBase64", "base64Url", "base32", "base58", "qp" (for quoted-printable), "url" (for url-encoding), "hex", "hexLower", or any of the encodings found at Chilkat Binary Encodings List.

The charset is the character encoding byte representation to hash. It is typically "utf-8". It can be any of the chacter encodings listed at Chilkat Character Encodings List.

Returns a zero-length WideString on failure

More Information and Examples
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GetNth
function GetNth(index: Integer; delimiterChar: WideString; exceptDoubleQuoted: Integer; exceptEscaped: Integer): WideString;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Returns the Nth substring in string that is a list delimted by delimiterChar. The first substring is at index 0. If exceptDoubleQuoted is 1, then the delimiter char found between double quotes is not treated as a delimiter. If exceptEscaped is 1, then an escaped (with a backslash) delimiter char is not treated as a delimiter.

Returns a zero-length WideString on failure

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GetRange
function GetRange(startIndex: Integer; numChars: Integer; removeFlag: Integer): WideString;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.87

Returns a string containing the specified range of characters from this instance. If removeFlag is 1, then the range of chars is removed from this instance.

Note: It was discovered that the range of chars was always removed regardless of the value of removeFlag. This is fixed in v9.5.0.89.

Returns a zero-length WideString on failure

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LastNLines
function LastNLines(numLines: Integer; bCrlf: Integer): WideString;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Returns the last N lines of the text. If fewer than numLines lines exists, then all of the text is returned. If bCrlf is 1, then the line endings of the returned string are converted to CRLF, otherwise the line endings are converted to LF-only.

Returns a zero-length WideString on failure

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LoadFile
function LoadFile(path: WideString; charset: WideString): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Loads the contents of a file.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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Obfuscate
procedure Obfuscate();
Introduced in version 9.5.0.80

Obfuscates the string. (The Unobfuscate method can be called to reverse the obfuscation to restore the original string.)

The Chilkat string obfuscation algorithm works by taking the utf-8 bytes of the string, base64 encoding it, and then scrambling the letters of the base64 encoded string. It is deterministic in that the same string will always obfuscate to the same result. It is NOT a secure way of encrypting a string. It is only meant to be a simple means of transforming a string into something unintelligible.

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Prepend
function Prepend(value: WideString): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.61

Prepends a copy of the specified string to this instance.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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PunyDecode
function PunyDecode(): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.71

In-place decodes the string from punycode.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples
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PunyEncode
function PunyEncode(): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.71

In-place encodes the string to punycode.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples
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RemoveAccents
function RemoveAccents(): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.91

Removes the accents (diacritics) from European accented characters. This applies only to the accented characters found in the Windows-1252 (Latin alphabet) and Windows-1250 (Central European) charsets. Accent marks for characters in other languages will not be removed.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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RemoveAfterFinal
function RemoveAfterFinal(marker: WideString): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Removes the substring found after the final occurrence of the marker. Also removes the marker. Returns 1 if the marker was found and content was removed. Otherwise returns 0.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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RemoveBefore
function RemoveBefore(marker: WideString): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Removes the substring found before the 1st occurrence of the marker. Also removes the marker. Returns 1 if the marker was found and content was removed. Otherwise returns 0.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples
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RemoveCharsAt
function RemoveCharsAt(startIndex: Integer; numChars: Integer): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.87

Removes the specified range of characters from this instance.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples
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Replace
function Replace(value: WideString; replacement: WideString): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Replaces all occurrences of a specified string in this instance with another specified string. Returns the number of replacements.

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ReplaceAfterFinal
function ReplaceAfterFinal(marker: WideString; replacement: WideString): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.73

Replaces the content found after the final occurrence of marker with replacement.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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ReplaceAllBetween
function ReplaceAllBetween(beginMark: WideString; endMark: WideString; replacement: WideString; replaceMarks: Integer): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.64

Replaces the first occurrence of ALL the content found between beginMark and endMark with replacement. The beginMark and endMark are included in what is replaced if replaceMarks is 1.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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ReplaceBetween
function ReplaceBetween(beginMark: WideString; endMark: WideString; value: WideString; replacement: WideString): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Replaces all occurrences of value with replacement, but only where value is found between beginMark and endMark. Returns the number of replacements made.

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ReplaceFirst
function ReplaceFirst(value: WideString; replacement: WideString): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Replaces the first occurrence of a specified string in this instance with another string. Returns 1 if the value was found and replaced. Otherwise returns 0.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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ReplaceI
function ReplaceI(value: WideString; replacement: Integer): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.67

Replaces all occurrences of value with the decimal integer replacement. Returns the number of replacements.

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ReplaceNoCase
function ReplaceNoCase(value: WideString; replacement: WideString): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.82

Replaces all occurrences of value with replacement (case insensitive). Returns the number of replacements.

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ReplaceWord
function ReplaceWord(value: WideString; replacement: WideString): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Replaces all word occurrences of a specified string in this instance with another specified string. Returns the number of replacements made.

Important: This method is limited to replacing whole words in strings that only contains characters in the Latin1 charset (i.e. iso-8859-1 or Windows-1252). A whole word can only contain alphanumeric chars where the alpha chars are restricted to those of the Latin1 alpha chars. (The underscore character is also considered part of a word.)

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SecureClear
procedure SecureClear();
Introduced in version 9.5.0.67

Removes all characters from the current StringBuilder instance, and write zero bytes to the allocated memory before deallocating.

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SetNth
function SetNth(index: Integer; value: WideString; delimiterChar: WideString; exceptDoubleQuoted: Integer; exceptEscaped: Integer): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Sets the Nth substring in string in a list delimted by delimiterChar. The first substring is at index 0. If exceptDoubleQuoted is 1, then the delimiter char found between double quotes is not treated as a delimiter. If exceptEscaped is 1, then an escaped (with a backslash) delimiter char is not treated as a delimiter.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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SetString
function SetString(value: WideString): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.61

Sets this instance to a copy of the specified string.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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Shorten
function Shorten(numChars: Integer): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.87

Shortens the string by removing the last numChars chars.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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StartsWith
function StartsWith(substr: WideString; caseSensitive: Integer): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Returns 1 if the string starts with substr. Otherwise returns 0. The comparison is case sensitive if caseSensitive is 1, and case insensitive if caseSensitive is 0.

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ToCRLF
function ToCRLF(): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Converts line endings to CRLF (Windows) format.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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ToLF
function ToLF(): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Converts line endings to LF-only (UNIX) format.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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ToLowercase
function ToLowercase(): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Converts the contents to lowercase.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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ToUppercase
function ToUppercase(): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Converts the contents to uppercase.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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Trim
function Trim(): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Trims whitespace from both ends of the string.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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TrimInsideSpaces
function TrimInsideSpaces(): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Replaces all tabs, CR's, and LF's, with SPACE chars, and removes extra SPACE's so there are no occurances of more than one SPACE char in a row.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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Unobfuscate
procedure Unobfuscate();
Introduced in version 9.5.0.80

Unobfuscates the string.

The Chilkat string obfuscation algorithm works by taking the utf-8 bytes of the string, base64 encoding it, and then scrambling the letters of the base64 encoded string. It is deterministic in that the same string will always obfuscate to the same result. It is not a secure way of encrypting a string. It is only meant to be a simple means of transforming a string into something unintelligible.

More Information and Examples
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WriteFile
function WriteFile(path: WideString; charset: WideString; emitBom: Integer): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Writes the contents to a file. If emitBom is 1, then the BOM (also known as a preamble), is emitted for charsets that define a BOM (such as utf-8, utf-16, utf-32, etc.)

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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WriteFileIfModified
function WriteFileIfModified(path: WideString; charset: WideString; emitBom: Integer): Integer;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.73

Writes the contents to a file, but only if it is a new file or if the contents are different than the existing file. If emitBom is 1, then the BOM (also known as a preamble), is emitted for charsets that define a BOM (such as utf-8, utf-16, utf-32, etc.)

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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