XPost: comp.lang.basic.visual, comp.lang.basic.visual.misc   
   From: no@no.com   
      
   see below   
      
      
   "J French"  wrote in message   
   news:4163e8f4.24270925@news.btclick.com...   
   > On Wed, 6 Oct 2004 18:52:00 +1000, "Steve"  wrote:   
   >   
   >>sorry all for the lack of details.   
   >   
   >    
   >   
   > It sounds to me as if you have :-   
   >   
   > 1) Codes of the form: ABCD1234567   
   > 2) The 4 digit prefix refers to the owner/shipping line   
   > 3) There are about 500 owner/shipping lines   
   > 4) You want a simple lookup on the 4 digit prefix   
   >    - that gives you 3 to 4 items of data   
   >   
   > Interestingly you are right about text files, as the chances are that   
   > you already have (or can get) a text file containing this information.   
   - There are websites with this info on the net. Some of the feed back i have   
   gotton has been to see if i can put the key parts together and create   
   something that does not require internet access.   
      
   >   
   > 500 lines is pretty trivial in terms of data   
   > - easily (and best) kept in memory   
   - I did give this some thought but my reason for having the data in a   
   seperate file was for ease of update and it saves me re-compiling the   
   program when ever i make changes   
      
   >   
   > Could you post about 4 lines of the text file that you have (or   
   > envisage getting from ... who knows where)   
   An example of the data would be   
   OWNER =   
   WEBSITE ADDRESS =   
   UNIT ENQUIRY ADDRESS = (this will point to the page on the shipping   
   lines/lease company's web site which is used to track and trace containers)   
   CONTACT NUMBER = (at the moment this will be australian numbers until i can   
   find someone who is willing to help with overseas ones. Then I will add a   
   location option that will only display data which is relevant to your   
   geographical location)   
      
   I have all this information in hard copy and saved data. Basically i have a   
   little black book with most of the data and the rest is in my head. The   
   above is pretty much all i am looking at putting in.   
      
   With regards to the web sites i am not worried at this stage of having them   
   setup so all you have to do is click it and it goes there.   
      
      
   >   
   > Alternatively (something I doubt) if you wish to generate the data   
   > file yourself, then tell us   
   I will be entering in the data myself. My main reason being that sometimes   
   particular web sites dont make it easy to find the data needed. The options   
   i listed above (from my experience anyway) are the main things you want when   
   trying to track down containers.   
      
   >   
   > You actually have an interesting little project, and it is especially   
   > neat that it has come from a checksum utility   
   > - it will, of course grow and grow   
   Its the first project i have done that i have found practical use for. I   
   have it posted on the net (i dont charge for it and dont plan on doing so)   
   and so far a few people have downloaded it and used it so its kind of kept   
   me going knowing that someone else has found use for it.   
      
   >   
   > A good project to hone up your programming   
   > - you will be on a roll   
      
   thankyou very much for your help   
      
   rgds   
      
   steve   
      
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