Using the AutoHotkey StringSplit / StrSplit() functionAutoHotkey has some pretty cool functions for slicing strings. Not quite as robust as Python however they definitely cover the majority of needs with ease. In the below video I demonstrate some simple usage if it as well as a way to access the Array it creates without ever saving it to a variable! :)
Working in email marketing and Website design I frequently need to URL Encode / Decode and parse URL parameters. This short AutoHotkey script makes doing so a breeze! I watch my colleagues struggle through trying to read encoded URLs or try and find every parameters in a given URL. With this script you can see just how easy it is to decode a URL and then parse it on the “?” then by every “&” putting them on new lines.
A second usage is to help examine how websites use URL Parameters to serve-up a webpage. This can be very helpful when doing Web Scraping as you can automate generating the page from a given website.
#SingleInstance, Force
;***********Encode URL*******************
!e:: ; alt+e encodes highlighted text
gosub Store_Clipboard_Copy_Selected_Text ;backup original clipboard
Clipboard:=UriEncode(clipboard) ;convert to URL encoded
Gosub Paste_and_Restore_Stored_Clipboard ;restore clipboard
return
;***********Decode URL*******************
!d:: ;Alt+d will Decode highlighted text
gosub Store_Clipboard_Copy_Selected_Text
Clipboard:=URiDecode(clipboard) ;Decode URL
Gosub Paste_and_Restore_Stored_Clipboard ;restore clipboard
return
!w:: ;Decode URL and Wrap on parameters
gosub Store_Clipboard_Copy_Selected_Text
clipboard:=URiDecode(clipboard)
StringReplace,clipboard,clipboard,?,`r`n`t?,All ;Line break and tab indent <strong>parse URL parameters</strong>.
StringReplace,clipboard,clipboard,&,`r`n`t`t&,All ;Line break and double tab indent
Gosub Paste_and_Restore_Stored_Clipboard
return
;******************************
;*******Store Clipboard- save for restoring, and copy selected text to clipboard****************
Store_Clipboard_Copy_Selected_Text:
Store:=ClipboardAll ;Store full version of Clipboard
clipboard = ; Empty the clipboard
SendInput, ^c ;changd from Send 11/23
ClipWait, 1
If ErrorLevel ;Added errorLevel checking
{
MsgBox, No text was sent to clipboard
Return
}
return
;**********************restore clipboard*********************************
Paste_and_Restore_Stored_Clipboard: ;put back original content
SendEvent , ^v
Clipboard:=Store
return
;***********https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/17367-url-encoding-and-decoding-of-special-characters/*******************
uriDecode(str) {
Loop
If RegExMatch(str, "i)(?<=%)[\da-f]{1,2}", hex)
StringReplace, str, str, `%%hex%, % Chr("0x" . hex), All
Else Break
Return, str
}
UriEncode(Uri, RE="[0-9A-Za-z]"){
VarSetCapacity(Var,StrPut(Uri,"UTF-8"),0),StrPut(Uri,&Var,"UTF-8")
While Code:=NumGet(Var,A_Index-1,"UChar")
Res.=(Chr:=Chr(Code))~=RE?Chr:Format("%{:02X}",Code)
Return,Res
}
If this interested you, you might also want to investigate using web scraping with AHK.
Hotstrings from AutoHotKey are an amazing time saver! If you’re not using them now, stop what you’re doing because they are very easy to use and save you a lot of time on a daily basis!
Learn how to create HotString with our Udemy HotStrings course
You’ve probably used Microsoft Word’s autocorrect to replace misspellings or perhaps the Copyright sign ©. Imagine if, instead of replacing one word, you could replace three pre-defined letters with paragraphs of text! Simply one of the best ways to crank-up your productivity in a very short time!
Another video I did demonstrating the usefulness of Hotstrings can be seen here where I demonstrate how I use it with SPSS to crank-out reports.
Ms-office – Word – Use AutoText Or Don’tIt’s Your Choice Tutorials
