Hi,

I would like to use filename stored previously in preset as creation argument of an sample abstraction, but logically it seems impossible to work with spaces in filenames then - abstraction would manage the filename as 2 or more arguments according to number of spaces, right?

So when loading the sample into system I wanted to make patch after [openpanel] to check whether filename contains spaces or not using

and exclude them from loading ... But i'm getting quite strange behavior:

Right after using [openpanel] it generates list as one symbol even with spaces, but if you save the patch and open it again the same list behaves as two symbols... (test patch attached)

I think I would be able to rebuild test patch with split/mergefilename, but isn't there any trick to manage filenames with spaces the way [openpanel] does?

I'm using Pd 0.41.4-extended

c.

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/testpatch.pd

The message box issue has to do with the way Pd parses the patch when it is loaded. It is able to remember that a message box contains a symbol with spaces while running, but when the patch is then reloaded it interprets the spaces as delimiters for a list. You can use [list2symbol] from zexy to convert it back to a symbol.

If you want to use filenames with spaces as creation arguments for abstractions, it's a little tricky. First, you won't be able to get away with more than eight spaces because arguments only range from $1-$9. And that, of course, assumes you won't need any other arguments. Second, you can't just [pack] the arguments and convert them to a symbol, because the empty arguments will get filled with zeros. You'll have to filter them out. And since you're filtering out zeros, you won't be able to use filenames that have a zero surrounded by spaces (i.e. "kick 0 b.wav). See the attached patch.

But if you could [loadbang] a message sent through [list2symbol] (which I think is the workaround you're trying to do), I think that would be a better solution, though still not perfect. With both solutions, if you have a number surrounded by spaces, it may get parsed differently. For example, " 001 " will get converted to " 1 ", and " 1.010 " will get converted to " 1.01 ".

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/filename-argument.mmb.pd

Hi Maelstorm,

thanx for info. Now I see this "space" thing is definitely a bug in pd. I've found somewhere it's already on Mr. Puckette's todolist, so I hope it will be solved soon.

Your solution is interesting, but as it's not working 100% I will rather disallow spaces in my project Test patch attached.

ps.: I also didn't know there is limitation of number of arguments. Not very good either :/

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/space_test.pd

I'm slightly confused. I thought the reason you're using [openpanel] was to put the path/file in a message box and [loadbang] it into the abstraction's inlet. If that's the case, then you should be fine sending the message through [list2symbol]. No need to worry about spaces there.

Also, if you happen to know in advance what samples you'll be using, you can copy them to your patch's folder and, as long as the filenames themselves don't have spaces, you can use it as a creation argument. Pd will consider it a relative path and check your patch's folder for it.

Edit: Nevermind the first paragraph. I need to get some goddamn sleep. I think I'm losing it.

you can make $10 and $11 and so on.

not that it fixes this problem, mind you.

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/argchecker.pd

(open the first abstraction)

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/argcheck.pd

Oh, didn't realize that. I thought I read in the docs somewhere that it was limited to $1-$9. Never actually needed more. Thanks for the correction.

I know I'm several years late to this here party, but as string manipulation with odd characters in PD still seems to be quite a bit of a challenge, I figure my reply may still save someone some frustration. I cannot say that my fix is the magic bullet that will work in any situation, but I have found a way to pass filenames with spaces that works reliably in many cases. The trick is to make creative use of [sprintf].

for example, if I wanted to pass a command to the [shell] object to run a search in a folder for a specific filetype, one would instinctively use a message object with a command that is something like

[my sound with spaces.wav (
|
[tosymbol (
|
[ find / -name $2.wav (
|
[shell]

One would get mixed or no results. Instead, something like this will work

[my sound with spaces.wav (
|
[list2symbol ]
|
[sprintf find / -name "%s"]
|
[shell]

I still am trying to figure out ways to pass semicolons and escape key slashes in a way thats manageable as well, as using [makefilename] is tricky to use when you have a creation argument with multiple variables, like in the case of [obj 100 100 send $0-volumeslider$1 (. or ANYTHING involving semicolons. If someone has a good way of dealing with that Id love to hear it. In the mean time my fix works well with filenames that contain spaces and odd characters.

Cheers!

Semi-colons are just horrible to work with in PD. It's hard even to get them into a list, since messages interpret them, and when you do get them they usually have a backslash \ (another character which is almost impossible to work with).

I have had some luck using [cyclone/substitute ; something-else]. The object box goes all wonky, but it does work, ie. it converts all semi-colons in a list into "something-else".

There is also always the Nuclear option of using [moocow/any2bytes] to blast it into a list of ASCII values. You can then do what you want with the numbers and return it to a list afterwards using [moocow/any2bytes]. The new Vanilla objects [list fromsymbol] and [list tosymbol] are also possibilities, but from memory I think that they slash the semi-colons on the way in, where the externals do not.

You can use [list fromsymbol] and [list tosymbol] to work with symbols containing spaces. Not beautiful, but it works.

32 is the ASCII value for space, so you can even add spaces to symbols when converted with [list fromsymbol] and put them together afterwards like this: tosymbolfromsymbol.pd

A solution to the original question: testpatch.pd

Okay here's a solution. very helpful tool for sampling in pure data.

So the issue was the filepath when saved as text changed and the spaces would not be included. so to get around this I converted the file path to numbers with "list fromsymbol" than save it. when its recalled than change it back with "list tosymbol"

So this patch will save the last sample you loaded anywhere on your computer.

save-filepath-even-with-spaces.pd

@JBONES1000 If you don't need to store it externally then it can be done very simply by tagging it as a symbol like this.......
David.

@whale-av this is cool!
My problem though was wanting the path to save so when I re-open the patch all the samples are loaded in still, without having to put them in a folder that the patch references.
Also im not a hundred percent on this but I've noticed in the past if the gui isn't running storing things in message boxes doesn't work?

@JBONES1000 Yes, your method is excellent for re-opening the patch.
The method I just posted will not work when the patch is re-opened (after saving with the correct filename in the message box).
David.