Member Avatar for Papa_Don

Hi group,

I'm using VB.net to convert an output file (text) from a Linux based program into a file that will easily read in Notepad. I found some code in VB.net to do this conversion for UNIX that works "OK" (meaning fair but not perfect). It looks like this:

txtLine = My.Computer.FileSystem.ReadAllText(RestranName)
' This begins to add the carriage returns in the appropriate places

txtLine = Replace(txtLine, vbLf, vbCrLf)
txtLine = Replace(txtLine, vbCr & vbCr, vbCr)
txtLine = Replace(txtLine, """", "")
' This writes the line to the file
My.Computer.FileSystem.WriteAllText(fileSave, txtLine, False)

The only issue (it's minor) is that it is adding a "ChrW(H2640)" character at the begining of each new page.

My question is: Would you know a better way to correct this so that it is formatted correctly and without the additional character?

In advance, thanks for your help.

Don

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by rubberman

Dani AI

Generated

Short answer: the LF→CRLF conversion you already have is fine; that extra glyph usually comes from either an embedded page-break control (form feed, ASCII 12) or an encoding/BOM mismatch that makes a byte sequence render as an odd Unicode character. ’s Notepad++ tip is useful for quick checks, but it helps to identify the exact codepoint before stripping anything.

To diagnose: open the file in Notepad++ and enable View → Show Symbol → Show All Characters, or use a hex-view/Hex-Editor plugin to see the bytes at each page break. Alternatively, run a tiny check in VB to print non-printing codepoints near the problem location so you know the numeric value to remove:

Dim txt = IO.File.ReadAllText(RestranName, System.Text.Encoding.Default)
For i = 0 To txt.Length - 1
    Dim v = AscW(txt(i))
    If v < 32 Or v = 127 Or v > 65500 Then Debug.WriteLine("pos " & i & " -> " & v)
Next

Fixes (pick one after you confirm the codepoint): if it’s form-feed remove it with text = text.Replace(ChrW(12), ""); if it’s a specific Unicode codepoint remove that one (e.g. ChrW(&H2640) only after confirming). Prefer reading with encoding detection to avoid BOM surprises:

Using sr As New IO.StreamReader(RestranName, True)
    Dim raw = sr.ReadToEnd()
    raw = raw.Replace(ChrW(12), "")   ' or replace the confirmed codepoint
    IO.File.WriteAllText(fileSave, raw, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8)
End Using

Caution: back up originals, test with Notepad++ after each change, and if page breaks are meaningful, replace them with a visible marker instead of deleting. Mention — identifying the exact numeric value is the key step before removing characters.

Member Avatar for rubberman

There are simple tools to do this without having to resort to VB. Look at notepad++. It can easily convert Unix/Linux text files to Windows ones (converting the LF in the *nix files to CRLF for Windows), and vice-versa.

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