Alphabet Buttons

Those tiny buttons--we've all seen them when searching for fonts, clip-art, midis--anytime a large amount of data needs to be narrowed down to make a selection easier. It's always best to follow common conventions because the user immediately has an idea of what to do and what to expect.

Trying to zero-in on a selection in a listbox containing a large amount of data is difficult. The scroll arrows are too slow and the scroll slider is too fast and jerky. Once the number of items is filtered and reduced the scrollbar action becomes much smoother.

The entire generated list of names is loaded into masterList$() and everytime a letter is selected all 5,000 names are parsed and the names are placed into displayList$ and displayed. It shows how fast Liberty Basic can work with 'giant' strings.

Each time the masterList$() is parsed the filtered results are accurately counted. When the report is generated the count for each letter is stored in nameCount() and a running tally is assigned to totalNames.

I have illustrated how to send messgaes to the user directly into the listbox. Personally, I find the overuse of Notice and Dialog_Modal annoying. People need to know that something IS happening so they don't start clicking buttons to make it do something. Updated messages are also sent to the 'faux' statusbar, created using only native Liberty Basic controls. (The status bar idea is only one of the many great tips shared by the Liberty Basic community on conforums, yahoogroups and the fantastic newsletters.)

So many times when trying out a program I've spent a lot of time entering data only to find it didn't do what I expected or worse--the data simply evaporated. A random data generator is a handy item to keep in the tool box. It can be easily modified. For those more serious about randomization the generated report should give an indication of the usefullness/limitation of the algorithm used.

Enjoy and modify as you wish :-) - JamesRedifer

 ' ALPHABET BUTTONS 5000 
 ' "Quit" subs by Janet Terra 
 ' Random name generator inspired by the "Buzz phrase generator" by JohnnyD 
 
 Dim masterList$(5000) 
 Dim displayList$(5000) 
 Dim nameCount(26) 
 
 Global sortem$, report 
 
 displayList$(1) = " Generating 5000 names" 'Always explain the delay 
 displayList$(2) = " and loading arrays." 
 displayList$(3) = " Please wait!" 
 
 Nomainwin 
 Stylebits #main, 0,_WS_MAXIMIZEBOX,0,0 
 WindowWidth = 230 
 WindowHeight = 400 
 UpperLeftX=int((DisplayWidth-WindowWidth)/2) 
 UpperLeftY=int((DisplayHeight-WindowHeight)/2) 
 
 Menu #main, "&File", "E&xit", quitByMenu 
 
 Listbox #main.namesList, displayList$(, showName, 15, 5, 195, 248 
 Button #main.showAll, "Show All", show5K, UL, 15, 292, 60, 25 
 Button #main.addAll, "Report", showReport, UL, 83, 292, 60, 25 
 Button #main.exit, "Quit", quit, UL, 150, 292, 60, 25 
 
 Button #main.A, "A", sel, UL, 15, 255, 15, 15 
 Button #main.B, "B", sel, UL, 30, 255, 15, 15 
 Button #main.C, "C", sel, UL, 45, 255, 15, 15 
 Button #main.D, "D", sel, UL, 60, 255, 15, 15 
 Button #main.E, "E", sel, UL, 75, 255, 15, 15 
 Button #main.F, "F", sel, UL, 90, 255, 15, 15 
 Button #main.G, "G", sel, UL, 105, 255, 15, 15 
 Button #main.H, "H", sel, UL, 120, 255, 15, 15 
 Button #main.I, "I", sel, UL, 135, 255, 15, 15 
 Button #main.J, "J", sel, UL, 150, 255, 15, 15 
 Button #main.K, "K", sel, UL, 165, 255, 15, 15 
 Button #main.L, "L", sel, UL, 180, 255, 15, 15 
 Button #main.M, "M", sel, UL, 195, 255, 15, 15 
 
 Button #main.N, "N", sel, UL, 15, 270, 15, 15 
 Button #main.O, "O", sel, UL, 30, 270, 15, 15 
 Button #main.P, "P", sel, UL, 45, 270, 15, 15 
 Button #main.Q, "Q", sel, UL, 60, 270, 15, 15 
 Button #main.R, "R", sel, UL, 75, 270, 15, 15 
 Button #main.S, "S", sel, UL, 90, 270, 15, 15 
 Button #main.T, "T", sel, UL, 105, 270, 15, 15 
 Button #main.U, "U", sel, UL, 120, 270, 15, 15 
 Button #main.V, "V", sel, UL, 135, 270, 15, 15 
 Button #main.W, "W", sel, UL, 150, 270, 15, 15 
 Button #main.X, "X", sel, UL, 165, 270, 15, 15 
 Button #main.Y, "Y", sel, UL, 180, 270, 15, 15 
 Button #main.Z, "Z", sel, UL, 195, 270, 15, 15 
 
 TextboxColor$ = "buttonface" 
 Textbox #main.statusLabel, 1, 323, 47, 20 
 Stylebits #main.statusLabel, _ES_READONLY, 0, 0, 0 
 Textbox #main.status, 48, 323, 173, 20 
 Stylebits #main.status, _ES_READONLY, 0, 0, 0 
 
 Open "Alphabet Buttons 5000" For Window As #main 
 Print #main, "Trapclose quit" 
 Print #main.namesList, "Font Courier_New 9" 
 Print #main.namesList, "singleclickselect" 
 Print #main.showAll, "!Font Arial_10" 
 Print #main.addAll, "!Font Arial_10" 
 Print #main.exit, "!Font Arial_10" 
 Print #main.statusLabel, "!font arial 8"; 
 Print #main.statusLabel, "Status:" 
 Print #main.status, "!font arial 8"; 
 Print #main.status, "Loading........" 
 
 Call gerenateNames$ 
 Sort masterList$(), 1, 5000 
 Call show5K handle$ 
 Wait 
 
 Sub show5K handle$ 
 report = 0 
 For x = 1 To 5000 
 displayList$(x) = masterList$(x) 'copy contents of masterList$() to displayList$() 
 Next x 
 Print #main.namesList, "reload" 
 Print #main.status, "Displaying 5000 names." 
 End Sub 
 
 Sub showName handle$ 
 Print #main.namesList, "selection? selected$" 
 If report <> 1 Then Print #main.status, "Name: "; selected$ 
 End Sub 
 
 Sub showReport handle$ 
 Redim displayList$(5000) 
 displayList$(1) = " Counting names and" 'Always explain the delay 
 displayList$(2) = " preparing report." 
 displayList$(3) = " Please wait!" 
 Print #main.namesList, "reload" 
 Print #main.status, "Preparing report........" 
 
 report = 1 'Set flag to prevent display of report lines in status bar. 
 totalNames = 0 
 reference$ = "A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z" 
 For x = 1 to 26 
 numNames = 0 
 sortem$ = word$(reference$, x) 
 For y = 1 To 5000 
 If left$(masterList$(y),1) = sortem$ Then numNames = numNames + 1 
 Next y 
 nameCount(x) = numNames 
 totalNames = totalNames + numNames 
 Next x 
 
 Redim displayList$(5000) 
 displayList$(1) = " REPORT" 
 For x = 1 to 13 
 displayList$(x+1) = " " + word$(reference$, x) + " = " + Str$(nameCount(x)) + _ 
 " " + word$(reference$,x+13) + " = " + Str$(nameCount(x+13)) 
 Next x 
 displayList$(15) = " TOTAL NAMES = " + Str$(totalNames) 
 Print #main.namesList, "reload" 
 Print #main.status, "Displaying report." 
 End Sub 
 
 Sub filterList handle$ 
 report = 0 
 numNames = 0 
 Redim displayList$(5000) 
 For x = 1 To 5000 
 If left$(masterList$(x),1) = sortem$ Then 
 displayList$(x) = masterList$(x) 
 numNames = numNames + 1 
 End If 
 Next x 
 Print #main.namesList, "reload" 
 Print #main.status, "Displaying "; numNames; " ("; sortem$; ") names." 
 End Sub 
 
 Sub quit handle$ 
 Close #main 
 End 
 End Sub 
 
 Sub quitByMenu 
 Call quit "#main" 
 End Sub 
 
 ' Generate 5,000 fictious names 
 Sub gerenateNames$ 
 a1$ = "A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Qu R S T U V W X Y Z" 
 a2$ = "b d ck l m n p r sh t v" 
 b1$ = "ally exter orbin echell alker olthar insero omestad etcher ashen anovich ordemberg atwood " 
 b2$ = "eston arlington eckenstein obuano auld orlique ahr ikowski oster inston inland arroll anettel" 
 b3$ = b1$ + b2$ 
 c$ = "Alice John Penny George Mary Bill Ann Tom Lucy David Jane Juan Wendy Xavier Ruth Bob Cora Leon " 
 d$ = "Laura Steve Nancy Matt Kelly Peter Joanne Ivan Betty Lewis Cathy Patrick Phyllis Paul Helen Keith" 
 e$ = c$ + d$ 
 
 For x = 1 To 5000 
 f$ = word$(a1$,int(rnd(1)*26)+1," ") 'pick first letter of surname 
 If f$ = "A" Or f$ = "E" Or f$ = "I" Or f$ = "O" Or f$ = "U" Then 'if vowel, add consonant 
 f$ = f$ + word$(a2$,int(rnd(1)*11)+1," ") 
 End If 
 g$ = word$(b3$,int(rnd(1)*26)+1," ") 'pick remainder of surname 
 h$ = word$(e$,int(rnd(1)*34)+1," ") 'pick first name 
 i$ = left$(word$(a1$,int(rnd(1)*26)+1," "),1) 'pick middle initial 
 masterList$(x) = f$ + g$ + ", " + h$ + " " + i$ 'assign full name to masterList$() 
 Next x 
 End Sub 
 
 Sub sel handle$ 
 sortem$ = word$(handle$,2,"."): Call filterList handle$ 
 End Sub