Autoit Command Line Parameters. A new approach.

by Terry Moore on October 20th, 2009

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There are two ways to get command line arguments that are passed to an Autoit script, $cmdLineRaw() and $cmdLine[]. Both allow you to get the arguments to control your script. Read about them here. The problem is that if you want an application to have multiple arguments but don’t what to have the user enter these in a certain order and to be able to distinguish each argument with a “-m or /m [parameter]“. Basically make your Autoit script with command line arguments act as any DOS command line application.

As you may know when you use $cmdLine[] approach each argument has to be in a certain order so that your program can react appropriately to each $cmdLine[1], $cmdLine[2], etc variable. But what if the user accidentally swaps his input and places the data that should go in parameter 1 in paramter 2? Now your script will either give an error or worst manipulate the wrong data. Below I will show you how I got around this:

Here is what we want our application to do, we want there to be two required arguments “-h and -b” both of these require that you have data passed to it and there are two optional arguments “-x and -y” that do not have data passed to it, they are just flags. Once run, we will display a message box showing the Header and Body along with if a flag was set.

First we will define some Global variables that will be place holders for our users input. Next we will create two functions, one called ReadCmdLineParams() which will be get the parameters that are passed on the command line. The second function is our help message called CmdLineHelpMsg() telling the user what each parameter means and how to use the application.

First define the Global Variables:

Global $msgHeader	 	= ""			;Varible for the message header
Global $msgBody			= ""			;Varible for the message body
Global $flagX 			= "False"		;Flag X
Global $flagY 			= "False"		;Flag y

After we set the Global variables we call the ReadCmdLineParams() function, then we will display the message box that will show the output from the command line arguments.

;;Get Parameters
ReadCmdLineParams()
 
;; Display message
MsgBox(0, "MsgHeader: " & $msgHeader, "MsgBody: " & $msgBody & " FlagX: " & $flagX & " FlagY: " & $flagY)

Next we will define the ReadCmdLineParams() function. This function will loop through all command line arguments and based on the specified arguements determine if a flag needs to be set or to go to the next argument to process the data and enter it to one of the Global variables.

Func ReadCmdLineParams() 	;Read in the optional switch set in the users profile and set a variable - used in case selection
 
	;;Loop through every arguement
	;;$cmdLine[0] is an integer that is eqaul to the total number of arguements that we passwed to the command line
	for $i = 1 to $cmdLine[0]
 
		select
			;;If the arguement equal -h
			case $CmdLine[$i] = "-h"
				;check for missing argument
				if $i == $CmdLine[0] Then cmdLineHelpMsg()
 
				;Make sure the next argument is not another paramter
				if StringLeft($cmdline[$i+1], 1) == "-" Then
					cmdLineHelpMsg()
				Else
					;;Stip white space from the begining and end of the input
					;;Not alway nessary let it in just in case
					$msgHeader = StringStripWS($CmdLine[$i + 1], 3)
				endif
 
			;;If the arguement equal  -b
			case $CmdLine[$i] = "-b"
 
				;check for missing arguement
				if $i == $CmdLine[0] Then cmdLineHelpMsg()
 
				;Make sure the next argument is not another paramter
				if StringLeft($cmdline[$i+1], 1) == "-" Then
					cmdLineHelpMsg()
				Else
					;;Stip white space from the begining and end of the input
					;;Not alway nessary let it in just in case
					$msgBody = StringStripWS($CmdLine[$i + 1], 3)
				EndIf
 
			;set the -x flag to True
			case $cmdLine[$i] = "-x"
				$flagX = "True"
 
			;set the -y flag to True
			case $cmdLine[$i] = "-y"
				$flagY = "True"
 
		EndSelect
 
	Next
 
	;Make sure required options are set and if not display the Help Message
	if $msgHeader == "" Or $msgBody == "" Then
		cmdLineHelpMsg()
	EndIf
 
EndFunc

Last we specify the cmdLineHelpMsg() function. This function gets called whenever a user inputs data to the command line incorrectly or without any arguments. It is just a message box that display how to use the application. Once the user presses OK to the message box the application is exited.

Func cmdLineHelpMsg()
	ConsoleWrite('A better way to get the command line parameters' & @LF & @LF & _
					'Syntax:' & @tab & 'cmdLineForBlog.exe [options]' & @LF & @LF & _
					'Default:' & @tab & 'Display help message.' & @LF & @LF & _
					'Required Options:' & @LF & _
					'-h [message]' & @tab & ' Message Header' & @LF & _
					'-b [message]' & @tab & ' Message Body' & @LF & _
					@LF & _
					'Optional Options:' & @LF & _
					'-x ' & @tab & 'Flag X' & @lf & _
					'-y' & @tab &  'Flag Y' & @lf)
	Exit
EndFunc

Once you compile the application as an exe (cmdLineForBlog.exe) go to a command prompt and type:

c:\> cmdLineForBlog.exe -h "Header Message" -b "Body Message" -x -y
or
c:\> cmdLineForBlog.exe  -b "Body Message" -x -y -h "Header Message"
or
c:\> cmdLineForBlog.exe -h "Header Message" -b "Body Message" -y

Now you can put the parameters in any order and still get the desired results.

You can also change the msgbox() function to the consolewrite() function and add #AutoIt3Wrapper_Change2CUI=y to the begining of your application which will display the help message in the DOS command windows instead of popping up a message box. One important note This application does not sanitize any data. Please write the appropriate functions to do so. Do not assume that use will always enter the correct data. If you have any questions or comments please email me at motersho [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com

UPDATE:
This page get a fair amount of traffic but I have received no comments. Since you have managed to read this far can you please leave a comment (g00d or bad) to let me know if this is a viable option for you or if this just doesn’t make sense. Any feed back is good feedback IMHO. Thanks.

Here is the script all at once:

Global $msgHeader	 	= ""			;Varible for the message header
Global $msgBody			= ""			;Varible for the message body
Global $flagX 			= "False"		;Flag X
Global $flagY 			= "False"		;Flag y
 
;;Get Parameters
ReadCmdLineParams()
 
;; Display message
MsgBox(0, "MsgHeader: " & $msgHeader, "MsgBody: " & $msgBody & " FlagX: " & $flagX & " FlagY: " & $flagY)
 
Func ReadCmdLineParams() 	;Read in the optional switch set in the users profile and set a variable - used in case selection
 
	;;Loop through every arguement
	;;$cmdLine[0] is an integer that is eqaul to the total number of arguements that we passwed to the command line
	for $i = 1 to $cmdLine[0]
 
		select
			;;If the arguement equal -h
			case $CmdLine[$i] = "-h"
				;check for missing argument
				if $i == $CmdLine[0] Then cmdLineHelpMsg()
 
				;Make sure the next argument is not another paramter
				if StringLeft($cmdline[$i+1], 1) == "-" Then
					cmdLineHelpMsg()
				Else
					;;Stip white space from the begining and end of the input
					;;Not alway nessary let it in just in case
					$msgHeader = StringStripWS($CmdLine[$i + 1], 3)
				endif
 
			;;If the arguement equal  -b
			case $CmdLine[$i] = "-b"
 
				;check for missing arguement
				if $i == $CmdLine[0] Then cmdLineHelpMsg()
 
				;Make sure the next argument is not another paramter
				if StringLeft($cmdline[$i+1], 1) == "-" Then
					cmdLineHelpMsg()
				Else
					;;Stip white space from the begining and end of the input
					;;Not alway nessary let it in just in case
					$msgBody = StringStripWS($CmdLine[$i + 1], 3)
				EndIf
 
			;set the -x flag to True
			case $cmdLine[$i] = "-x"
				$flagX = "True"
 
			;set the -y flag to True
			case $cmdLine[$i] = "-y"
				$flagY = "True"
 
		EndSelect
 
	Next
 
	;Make sure required options are set and if not display the Help Message
	if $msgHeader == "" Or $msgBody == "" Then
		cmdLineHelpMsg()
	EndIf
 
EndFunc
 
Func cmdLineHelpMsg()
	ConsoleWrite('A better way to get the command line parameters' & @LF & @LF & _
					'Syntax:' & @tab & 'cmdLineForBlog.exe [options]' & @LF & @LF & _
					'Default:' & @tab & 'Display help message.' & @LF & @LF & _
					'Required Options:' & @LF & _
					'-h [message]' & @tab & ' Message Header' & @LF & _
					'-b [message]' & @tab & ' Message Body' & @LF & _
					@LF & _
					'Optional Options:' & @LF & _
					'-x ' & @tab & 'Flag X' & @lf & _
					'-y' & @tab &  'Flag Y' & @lf)
	Exit
EndFunc

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From → AutoIT, How To, Programming

5 Comments →

Crazycat permalink

Exactly what I needed! Thanks!
yair permalink

thanks, thats a good tip
Patrick Mackaaij permalink

Hi!

I was looking for a way to parse command line switches in AutoIt so I didn’t have to write this all over again. This wheel must have been invented and fortunatly it has. The way you handle it makes sense to me.

So thanks for sharing!

It would be nice if AutoIt would have this functionality by default. Maybe it’s a good idea to start building it as a (udf) library and help people with sanitizing as well?

If you’d like, maybe a good place to start is by posting the udf at:
http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/

Best regards,

Patrick Mackaaij
http://www.eenmanierom.nl/
http://twitter.com/mackaaij/
Terry Moore permalink

I am glad that you have found this intresting and informative.

Pat – I will look in to posting this on AutoIT forums.

Thanks
Terry
Ian Journeaux permalink

Just found it by happenstance as I usually just search the AutoIt forums.

It looks like this answers a question that came up today.

Autoit Command Line Parameters. A new approach.

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