Navigation Menu

Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@G33kDude

G33kDude/TipsAndTricks.md

Last active February 28, 2024 18:32
Show Gist options
  • Star 8 You must be signed in to star a gist
  • Fork 1 You must be signed in to fork a gist
  • Save G33kDude/1601bd24996cf380e03bcf2c2d9c2372 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save G33kDude/1601bd24996cf380e03bcf2c2d9c2372 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Download ZIP
Raw
TipsAndTricks.md

GeekDude's Tips, Tricks, and Standalones

This is intended to be a useful reference for any AutoHotkey scriptwriter regardless of their experience. If you find any of the examples to be confusing please let me know so I can update them for clarity.

Table of Contents

String manipulation

Repeat a string.

StrRepeat(String, Times)
{
	return StrReplace(Format("{:0" Times "}", 0), "0", String)
}

Pad a string to a given length.

Var := "abc123"

; Format can be used to left-pad with zeros
MsgBox, % Format("{:010}", Var)

; SubStr can be used for prefix padding or postfix padding with any character.
; However, if the string is already larger than the size you want to pad to,
; the string will be truncated.
MsgBox, % SubStr("-=-=-=-=-=" Var, 1-10)
MsgBox, % SubStr(Var "=-=-=-=-=-", 1, 10)

Remove duplicate delimiters when compiling a list in a loop WITHOUT using an if statement.

Loop, 9
	List .= ", " A_Index

; SubStr can be used to remove a single delimiter
MsgBox, % SubStr(List, 3)

; LTrim can be used to remove many delimiters
MsgBox, % LTrim(List, ", ")

Check if a string starts with another string.

; Using InStr
if (InStr("Monkey Tacos", "Monkey") == 1)

; Using SubStr (if you know the length of the other string)
if (SubStr("Monkey Tacos", 1, 6) == "Monkey")

; Using Regular Expressions
if ("Monkey Tacos" ~= "^Monkey")

Objects

Use standard JSON format when defining your objects by placing the definition into a continuation section.

; http://www.json.org/example.html
MyObject :=
( LTrim Join
{
	"glossary": {
		"title": "example glossary",
		"GlossDiv": {
			"title": "S",
			"GlossList": {
				"GlossEntry": {
					"ID": "SGML",
					"SortAs": "SGML",
					"GlossTerm": "Standard Generalized Markup Language",
					"Acronym": "SGML",
					"Abbrev": "ISO 8879:1986",
					"GlossDef": {
						"para": "A meta-markup language, used to create markup languages such as DocBook.",
						"GlossSeeAlso": ["GML", "XML"]
					},
					"GlossSee": "markup"
				}
			}
		}
	}
}
)

Retrieve the item count from an associative array. Note that AutoHotkey v1.1.29 makes this unnecessary.

Count := NumGet(&Array, 4*A_PtrSize)

Logic

Do a toggle with only one line.

Loop
	MsgBox, % Toggle := !Toggle

DllCalls

Lock your screen with a simple DllCall.

DllCall("LockWorkStation")

Output to a console window. Notes:

  • This doesn't work when running from SciTE4AHK.
  • This is not the same as using the standard output, so output done in this way will not appear if you run your script from the command prompt.
; By hand using FileAppend. FileOpen could also have been used.
DllCall("AllocConsole")
Loop, 10
	FileAppend, %A_Index%`n, CONOUT$


; As a function using FileOpen. FileAppend could also have been used.
Print(Text){
	static c := FileOpen("CONOUT$", ("rw", DllCall("AllocConsole")))
	
	; Reference __Handle to force AHK to flush the write buffer. Without it,
	; Without it, AHK will cache the write until later, such as when the
	; file is closed.
	c.Write(Text), c.__Handle
}

Run command line tools without having a command prompt pop up by attaching to a hidden command prompt.

; Launch a command promt and attach to it
DetectHiddenWindows, On
Run, cmd,, Hide, PID
WinWait, ahk_pid %PID%
DllCall("AttachConsole", "UInt", PID)

; Run another process that would normally
; make a command prompt pop up
RunWait, %ComSpec% /c ping localhost > %A_Temp%\PingOutput.txt

; Close the hidden command prompt process
Process, Close, %PID%

; Look at the output
FileRead, Output, %A_Temp%\PingOutput.txt
MsgBox, %Output%

Writing Libraries

When writing a library that has code which must be run before any of your functions can be used, you can create an initialization function that runs itself automatically when the script starts. This eliminates any need for the library's users to put your code into their auto-execute section.

Initialize()
{
	Static Dummy := Initialize()
	MsgBox, This init function has been called automatically
}

If your library defines hotkeys, it can break other scripts that include it in their auto-execute section. You can avoid this by wrapping your hotkey definitions in if False.

if False
{
	x::MsgBox, You hit x
	y::MsgBox, You hit y
}

MsgBox, Auto-execution not interrupted

Windows

Change the default script template by modifying C:\Windows\ShellNew\Template.ahk

Run, *RunAs notepad.exe C:\Windows\ShellNew\Template.ahk

Start your scripts on login by placing shortcuts (or the actual scripts) into the Startup folder.

FileCreateShortcut, %A_ScriptFullPath%, %A_Startup%\%A_ScriptName%.lnk

Threading

⚠ WARNING ⚠

These tricks DO NOT add real multithreading to AutoHotkey. They are bound by the limitations of AutoHotkey's green thread implementation and do not work around those restrictions in any way. If you would like to use real multithreading with AutoHotkey look into AutoHotkey_H or multiprogramming (multiple programs/scripts interacting with eachother).

⚠ WARNING ⚠

Create a new thread context using SetTimer with a small negative period.

One example of where this is useful is if you have a message handler from OnMessage that you have to do a lot of processing in, but that the result of doesn't actually change what you return to the sender of the message. By using SetTimer to schedule a new thread context to be created, you can be responsive and return immediately, then do your processing afterward.

; The trick on its own
SetTimer, Label, -0


; The trick in context
WM_LBUTTONDOWN(wParam, lParam, Msg, hWnd)
{
	; Return immediately then handle the click afterward
	SetTimer, HandleClick, -0
	return
}

HandleClick:
MsgBox, You clicked!
return

GUIs

Create a menu bar for your GUI using a well formatted object instead of a long list of menu commands.

; Create a well-formatted object using one of the tricks
; from the objects section of this document
Menu :=
( LTrim Join Comments
[
	["&File", [
		["&New`tCtrl+N", "LabelNew"],
		["&Open`tCtrl+O", "LabelOpen"],
		["&Save`tCtrl+S", "LabelSave"],
		[],
		["E&xit`tCtrl+W", "GuiClose"]
	]], ["&Edit", [
		["Find`tCtrl+F", "LabelFind"],
		[],
		["Copy`tCtrl+C", "LabelCopy"],
		["Paste`tCtrl+V", "LabelPaste"]
	]], ["&Help", [
		["&About", Func("About").Bind(A_Now)]
	]]
]
)

MenuArray := CreateMenus(Menu)
Gui, Menu, % MenuArray[1]
Gui, Show, w640 h480
return

LabelNew:
LabelOpen:
LabelSave:
LabelFind:
LabelCopy:
LabelPaste:
return

GuiClose:
Gui, Destroy

; Release menu bar (Has to be done after Gui, Destroy)
for Index, MenuName in MenuArray
	Menu, %MenuName%, DeleteAll

ExitApp
return

About(Time)
{
	FormatTime, Time, %Time%
	MsgBox, This menu was created at %Time%
}

CreateMenus(Menu)
{
	static MenuName := 0
	Menus := ["Menu_" MenuName++]
	for each, Item in Menu
	{
		Ref := Item[2]
		if IsObject(Ref) && Ref._NewEnum()
		{
			SubMenus := CreateMenus(Ref)
			Menus.Push(SubMenus*), Ref := ":" SubMenus[1]
		}
		Menu, % Menus[1], Add, % Item[1], %Ref%
	}
	return Menus
}

Regular Expressions

Find, and optionally replace, all matches of regular expression efficiently using a custom enumerator.

Haystack =
(
abc123|

abc456|

abc789|
)

for Match, Ctx in new RegExMatchAll(Haystack, "O)abc(\d+)")
{
	if (Match[1] == "456")
		Ctx.Replacement := "Replaced"
}

MsgBox, % Ctx.Haystack


class RegExMatchAll
{
	__New(ByRef Haystack, ByRef Needle)
	{
		this.Haystack := Haystack
		this.Needle := Needle
	}
	
	_NewEnum()
	{
		this.Pos := 0
		return this
	}
	
	Next(ByRef Match, ByRef Context)
	{
		if this.HasKey("Replacement")
		{
			Len := StrLen(IsObject(this.Match) ? this.Match.Value : this.Match)
			this.Haystack := SubStr(this.Haystack, 1, this.Pos-1)
			. this.Replacement
			. SubStr(this.Haystack, this.Pos + Len)
			this.Delete("Replacement")
		}
		Context := this
		this.Pos := RegExMatch(this.Haystack, this.Needle, Match, this.Pos+1)
		this.Match := Match
		return !!this.Pos
	}
}

Networking and Web

Download a file from the web and use its contents without having to save to a temporary file.

Address := "https://example.com/"

; Send a request for the resource we want using an HTTP Request object
Request := ComObjCreate("WinHttp.WinHttpRequest.5.1")
Request.Open("GET", Address)
Request.Send()


; If you want to get text data:

MsgBox, % Request.responseText


; If you want to get binary data:

; Get the data pointer and size. The pointer will be valid
; only as long as a reference to Request.responseBody is kept.
pData := NumGet(ComObjValue(Request.responseBody)+8+A_PtrSize, "UInt")
Size := Request.responseBody.MaxIndex()+1

; Do something with the binary data
FileOpen("BinaryFile.png", "w").RawWrite(pData+0, Size)

Files and Folders

Read a file directly in an expression using FileOpen.

MsgBox, % FileOpen("C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts", "r").Read()

Overwrite a file in one step using FileOpen.

/* Old method:
	FileDelete, FileName.txt
	FileAppend, New contents, FileName.txt
*/

FileOpen("FileName.txt", "w").Write("New contents")

Revision History

You can view old versions of this post from the GitHub link below.

https://gist.github.com/G33kDude/1601bd24996cf380e03bcf2c2d9c2372/revisions

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment