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4D v14.3

ST Get text


ST Get text ( {* ;} object {; startSel {; endSel}} ) -> Function result

Parameter	Type	Description
*	Operator	If specified, object is an object name (string) If omitted, object is a variable or a field
object	Form object	Object name (if * is specified) or Text field or variable (if * is omitted)
startSel	Longint	Start of selection
endSel	Longint	End of selection
Function result	Text	Text including style tags

Description

The ST Get text command returns the styled text found in the text field or variable designated by the object parameter.

If you pass the optional * parameter, this indicates that the object parameter is an object name (string). During execution, if the object has the focus, the command returns information about the object being edited; however, when the object does not have the focus, the command returns information about the data source (field or variable) of the object.
If you omit the * parameter, this indicates that the object parameter is a field or a variable. In this case, you pass a field or variable reference instead of a string and during execution, the command returns information about this field or variable.

The command returns the text with any style tags that are associated with it, which means, for example, that you can copy and paste text while keeping its style.

The optional startSel and endSel parameters let you designate a selection of text in object. The startSel and endSel values give a selection of plain text, without taking any style tags found in the text into account.

If you omit startSel and endSel, ST Get text returns all the text contained in object,
If you pass startSel and endSel, ST Get text returns the selection of text set by these limits.

4D provides predefined constants so that you can designate the selection limits automatically in the startSel and endSel parameters. These constants are found in the "Multistyle Text" theme:

Constant	Type	Value	Comment
ST End highlight	Longint	-1001	Designates last character of current text selection in object (*)
ST End text	Longint	0	Designates last character of text contained in object
ST Start highlight	Longint	-1000	Designates first character of current text selection in object (*)
ST Start text	Longint	1	Designates first character of text contained in object

(*) You must pass an object name in object to be able to use this constant. If you pass a reference to a field or variable, the command is applied to all the text of the object.

If the values of startSel and endSel are equal or if startSel is greater than endSel, an error is returned.

System variables and sets

After this command is executed, the OK variable is set to 1 if no error occurred; otherwise, it is set to 0. This is the case more particularly when style tags are not evaluated properly (incorrect or missing tags).

In the case of an error, the variable is not changed. When an error occurs on a variable when text is being evaluated, 4D transforms the text into plain text; as a result, the <, > and & characters are converted into HTML entities.