first array bit

[fatboysudsy]

hi there,

i am trying to make a client/server program for my project.
i have created a menu that gives 3 options which in turn would take you to its corresponding method in my client. the method would run and send over some info to the server as a string. what i want to do is put a character into the first part of the array ( i believe this to be arrayname [0] and not [1]) so that when the server reads in the first character it can recognise it and send it to the correct path.

i.e 
if arrayname[0] ==Q   do this bit
else if arrayname[0] ==C  do this
else if arryname[0] == s do this
else send error code

can anyone tell me how this could be done, and how it can be done using tab spacing ?

cheers

fatboy

[Ancient Dragon]

Just make the menu option the first character of the string that the client sends to the server. But I think that is what you already said. I have no idea what the remainder of that string will be.

>>and how it can be done using tab spacing ?
Huh? No idea what that means.

[fatboysudsy]

Hi dragon,

"Just make the menu option the first character of the string that the client sends to the server"

Thats the bit i don't know how to do.

Also when reading at the other end, i will have 3 bits of information in the string and need to get each bit individually that why i thought of tab spacing to make reading each bit easier. The string will be of varying lengths so i cannot just read say 8 characters.

thanks

[Ancient Dragon]

Its not bits but bytes. The smallest thing you can send from client to server is a byte, which is normally 8 bits. The letter 'Q' is one byte.

>>Also when reading at the other end, i will have 3 bits of information in the string

No, what you probably mean is that the server will get 3 bytes of information. Just treat it like you would any other character array.

[fatboysudsy]

Ok here goes,

the returning message will have for example the letter 'Q' as it's first byte.

That will tell me how to get to the correct part of the program.

i will then have two further pieces of information within the array, however i will not know how long each piece will be. In other words i do not know how many bytes of information there are. the question asks for me to give a list of TV programmes based of category and sub category i.e. news ( local/national), current affairs, entertainment (films, comedies, soaps), sports (footy, cricket basketbal) etc.

How can i solve this ? i thought if i maybe put in some blank bytes after each piece of information like a tab space perhaps ????

Is there an easier way of distinguihing where one ends and the other starts.

[Ancient Dragon]

you could put the length of each string before it, which is similar to how I do it. Or terminate the string with a character you KNOW will never be in the string. Spaces are not good for this because the strings will probably have enbedded strings. The pipe symbol '|' or tab character are often used as terminators.