Jack’s AutoHotkey Blog

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Windows scripting, Windows Utilities , ,

Download AutoHotkey Tricks You Ought To Do With Windows (Sixth Edition) PDF File

This AutoHotkey Tricks Book Includes “Table of Contents” and “Indexes” from Jack’s AutoHotkey Books!
(For other e-book formats click here!)

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Get Started with AutoHotkey with These Books!

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Library Benefits

May 10, 2021

Add a map to your GUIs,”Use ActiveX Control to Embed World Maps in AutoHotkey GUI.”

May 4, 2021

The start of a new exploration, “Build a Barebones Web Browser Using the AutoHotkey ActiveX GUI Control.”

April 26, 2021

GUI Web links plus a couple of other tricks, “Adding Web Links to the AutoHotkey IPFind.ahk Script.”

April 19, 2021

More examples of how to calculate traditional measurement systems, “Working with Classic Units of Measurements (AutoHotkey Tricks).”

April 12, 2021

Here’s a neat AutoHotkey trick worth exploring, “Fake Math Tricks Using the Floor() and Mod() Functions (AutoHotkey Tips).”

April 5, 2021

Determine and future or past day on the calendar with “Calculating Dates in AutoHotkey by Adding Years, Months, and/or Days.”

March 29, 2021

A variation of the HowLongYearsMonthsDays.ahk script eliminating the GUI and multiple selections, “Using Parts to Build a New AutoHotkey Script (HowLongInstant.ahk).”

March 22, 2021

Another useful Regular Expressions (RegEx) technique, “Extracting Multiple Dates from Text Using AutoHotkey RegEx.”

March 15, 2021

Visit past blogs, “Working with AutoHotkey Date Formats and Timespan Calculations.”

March 8, 2021

Script running slow? Check out these AutoHotkey Speed Tips.

March 1, 2021

I’ve added a new menu item to the “Topics and Series” menu bar category located at the top right of this page (“Sending E-Mail and AutoHotkey“).

February 22, 2021

The astrology page for horoscopes change. I fixed it with “Adapting Web Scraping Routines to Changing Web Pages (AutoHotkey Tip).”

AutoHotkey_Tricks_150

February 15, 2021

Posted another series page. This time “Finalizing an AutoHotkey Script.”

February 8, 2021

I’ve started putting together pages listing blogs with a common thread, “Finding Tips at Jack’s AutoHotkey Blogs.”

February 1, 2021

“Turn Web Addresses into Hotlinks for the AHK File Peek Window (AutoHotkey Tip).”

January 25, 2021

“A Trick for Creating a New Hotkey from a Subroutine (AutoHotkey Quick Tip).”

AHKcoursead1

January 18, 2021

“Regular Expressions (RegEx) for Mining Text in Files (AutoHotkey Startup Control).”

January 11, 2021

“Peeking at Notes Inside Auto-Startup AHK Script Files (AutoHotkey Startup Control).”

January 4, 2021

“Add Submenus to the Auto-Startup Menu to Increase Options (AutoHotkey Startup Control).”

December 28, 2020

Build an icon right-click menu, “Adding Startup Folder Shortcuts to a System Tray Menu (AutoHotkey Startup Control).”

December 21, 2020

Reading the Startup folder, “Collecting File Information from Windows Folders Using AutoHotkey.”

Click the Follow button at the top of the sidebar on the right of this page for e-mail notification of new blogs. (If you’re reading this on a tablet or your phone, then you must scroll all the way to the end of the blog—pass any comments—to find the Follow button.)

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Use ActiveX Control to Embed World Maps in AutoHotkey GUI

Jack Dunning ActiveX, Arrays, AutoHotkey, GUI (Graphical User Interface) Pop-ups, Link controls, Loops, Regular Expressions (RegEx) , ,

By Directly Loading a Map from OpenStreetMap.org into Your AutoHotkey Graphical User Interface (GUI) Pop-up Window, You Can Add Interactive Geographic Locations to All Your Apps

I have some good news and some bad news about using AutoHotkey tools to directly access Web data through the Internet. First the bad news. Since the AutoHotkey tools for downloading and reading Web pages use Internet Explore (built into Windows but no longer supported by Microsoft), Web providers can effectively block access by identifying that user browser. For the good news, you rarely need to use those sites blocking simple little personal apps such as my IPFind.ahk script. So many other sites support location data for IP addresses that I don’t have a problem keeping the script up and running.

For a quick glance at the geographic location of an IP address, insert an OpenStreetMap.org Web window into an AutoHotkey GUI. Hold the mouse cursor over a map and scroll in or out to zoom in or out.

Previously, I had repaired other issues caused by changes in the source Web page and converted the IPFind.ahk script to use a GUI window rather than a MsgBox command. This upgrade facilitated adding links to the app, see “Adding Web Links to the AutoHotkey IPFind.ahk Script,” as well as making the current insertion of interactive maps using the ActiveX GUI control possible. I fixed the IPFind.ahk script problems by switching to another source Web page and added an interactive map from OpenStreetMap.com.

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Build a Barebones Web Browser Using the AutoHotkey ActiveX GUI Control

Jack Dunning ActiveX, AutoHotkey, Web browser ,

Want to Add a Web Page to a Graphical User Interface (GUI) Window? Use the ActiveX GUI Control!

I’ve often seen the ActiveX GUI control sitting in the AutoHotkey online documentation without investigating it. Only recently when I contemplated adding maps to my IPFind.ahk GUI did my curiosity reactivate my interest. The ActiveX control adds a stripped-down version of an Internet Explorer window to your GUI pop-ups.

The ComputorEdgeScript.ahk Graphical User Interface (GUI) demonstrates a barebones AutoHotkey Web browser without all of the features of today’s bloated software.
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Adding Web Links to the AutoHotkey IPFind.ahk Script

Jack Dunning Arrays, AutoHotkey, GUI (Graphical User Interface) Pop-ups, Link controls, Loops, Regular Expressions (RegEx), Text Formatting, Web Pages , , , , ,

While Fixing the IPFind.ahk Script for Listing the Geographic Location of an IP Address, I Added Links for the IP Identification Site and OpenStreetMap

Occasionally, Web page scraping apps fail (or display strange results) due to changes in source page data formats. It usually only takes a few minutes to review the code and make the necessary RegEx adjustments to restore acceptable results. This time while repairing the IPFind.ahk script, I noticed that the Web page source code also offered IP longitude and latitude. I thought, “Why not add a map link to the display window for anyone curious about its geographic position?” The IP site (which I also added as a link) includes a map, but I wanted one with greater detail.

An IP address site can provide a great deal of information—including approximate longitude and latitude.

Note: I recently discussed the Link GUI control in “Turn Web Addresses into Hotlinks for the AHK File Peek Window.”

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Working with Classic Units of Measurements (AutoHotkey Tricks)

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Floor() function, Mod() function, Ternary Operator , , ,

Figuring Odd or Even, Working with Fractions, and Calculating Quarts, Pints, and Cups

Last time in “Fake Math Tricks Using the Floor() and Mod() Functions (AutoHotkey Tips),” I introduced math techniques based upon the Floor() and Mod() functions. Although making basic calculations more complicated, many age-old units of measurement (e.g. yards, feet, and inches with fractions or gallons, quarts, pints, and cups with fractions) persist in common use among everyday endeavors. By obtaining the results from old-fashion division arithmetic showing quotients and remainders, we can write AutoHotkey routines for calculations in these varied types of units.

In order to provide more insight into how to use the Floor() function (quotient without remainder) and Mod() function (remainder or modulo), I offer a few examples of how to build calculators for these types of classic measurements.

Odd or Even?

Depending upon your line of work, you may or may not need to determine the parity (odd or even) of an integer. As humans, we instantly recognize odd or even with a glance at the last digit (1, 3, 5, 7, 9 odd or 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 even). Computers must make a calculation—the easiest in AutoHotkey divides the number by 2 and looks at the remainder using the Mod() function:

test := 35
MsgBox % Mod(test, 2)=1 ? test " is odd!" : test " is even!"
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Fake Math Tricks Using the Floor() and Mod() Functions (AutoHotkey Tips)

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Dates and Time, Floor() function, Mod() function , , ,

Although Not Really Fake Math, These Two AutoHotkey Functions Can Solve Eclectic, Yet Practical, Everyday Problems!

The Irish philosopher George Berkeley proved that mathematics does not exist in reality. It turns out nobody cares! Even though math resides only in our heads, we continue to use it anyway.

Berkeley did not doubt that calculus produced real-world truth; simple physics experiments could verify that Newton’s method did what it claimed to do. “The cause of Fluxions cannot be defended by reason”,[48] but the results could be defended by empirical observation, Berkeley’s preferred method of acquiring knowledge at any rate. Berkeley, however, found it paradoxical that “Mathematicians should deduce true Propositions from false Principles, be right in Conclusion, and yet err in the Premises.” In The Analyst, he endeavoured to show “how Error may bring forth Truth, though it cannot bring forth Science”.[49] Newton’s science, therefore, could not on purely scientific grounds justify its conclusions, and the mechanical, deistic model of the universe could not be rationally justified.[50]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Berkeley#Philosophy_of_mathematics

Fortunately, we don’t need to agree with (or even understand) the above citation to take advantage of the results from mental calculation. Scientists may show concern about the theoretical but engineers only care about what works.

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Calculating Dates in AutoHotkey by Adding Years, Months, and/or Days

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Dates and Time, Format() Function, Loops ,

The HowLongYearsMonthsDays.ahk Script Calculates Time Spans—This New DateCalc() Function Yields New Dates Based on Adding or Subtracting Years, Months, or Days

Allan recently inspired me to write (and helped me debug) an AutoHotkey function for calculating new dates based on entering years, months, and/or days. While not long or involved, the function includes a couple of interesting techniques.

Note: I have no doubt that many others have written similar date-calculating functions in AutoHotkey. This merely represents my stab at it.

The lack of consistency in days between 12-month years (leap years) and the varying numbers of days in months underlies the basic date calculating problem. While AutoHotkey includes a special tool (EnvAdd) for determining new dates based upon adding days, hours, minutes, or seconds to any valid date-time stamp format, writing a more complete date finding function requires accounting for the year and month variables separately.

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Using Parts to Build a New AutoHotkey Script (HowLongInstant.ahk)

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Clipboard Routine, Dates and Time, Format() Function, Function Libraries, MsgBox Techniques, Parsing Data, Regular Expressions (RegEx), Script Structure, Switch/Case Command, Ternary Operator, Windows Registry , ,

While Many Users Find the Original GUI Based HowLong Script Valuable, Combining Snippets of Code Creates a New Instant HowLong Script

Last time in “Extracting Multiple Dates from Text Using AutoHotkey RegEx,” I wrote a Regular Expressions (RegEx) that copied the first and last date (in a variety of formats) found in a selection from a document or Web page. (I recently updated that RegEx to make it more robust.) That represented the first step in building an instant HowLongYearsMonthsDay.ahk script. The goal, as defined by the reader, included highlighting a section of text which bounds two dates, pressing a Hotkey combination, then immediately calculating and displaying the timespan—no delaying the process with an input GUI or clicking a calculate button. As with many new scripts, I took pieces of it from other scripts and integrated them to produce a new one.

The chunks I used to produce the new script included:

  1. The Standard Clipboard Routine for capturing the selected text.
  2. The RegEx for identifying and capturing the target dates. (Discussed in my last blog.)
  3. The DateConvert() function found in the DateStampConvert.ahk script for formatting the parsed dates as the standard TimeDate stamp (YYYYMMDD).
  4. The HowLong() function found in the HowLongYearsMonthsDays.ahk script for calculating the timespan between the two TimeDate stamp parameters.
  5. A MsgBox for instantly displaying the results.
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Extracting Multiple Dates from Text Using AutoHotkey RegEx

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Dates and Time, Regular Expressions (RegEx) ,

While Not Simple (and a Little Bit “Greedy”), the RegEx for Two-Date Parsing Only Requires One Selection

I received the following query from a reader:

Regular Expressions in AutoHotkey
Regular Expressions (RegEx) can be mysterious in any language.

Hi! Is it possible to highlight the entire date range (e.g. 16 March 2021 to 21 May 2021) when the Hotkey is triggered, feed it into the timespan ahk, and share the timespan as result?

“Working with AutoHotkey Date Formats and Timespan Calculations“

Yes, it is! You’ll find using Regular Expressions (RegEx) to simultaneously parse the two dates from the text the key to success. Plus, you’ll want to streamline the process by eliminating the GUI and feeding the dates directly into the HowLong() function found in HowLongYearsMonthsDays.ahk script. Implementing the instant calculation requires three steps:

  1. Writing a RegEx for identifying and capturing the target dates. (Discussed in this blog.)
  2. Using DateStampConvert.ahk code to format the parsed dates in the standard TimeDate stamp (YYYYMMDD).
  3. Calculate the timespan by running the HowLong() function using the two dates as parameters.

This approach should provide you with an instant timespan calculation between any two dates matched in a text selection.

I have not done all the work, but I have developed a RegEx which locates the first and last date in a text selection;

sx)(\b[[:alpha:]]+.?\s\d\d?,?\s\d?\d?\d\d|\b\d\d?[-\s]?[[:alpha:]]+[-\s]?\d\d\d?\d?|\b\d\d?[-/]\d\d?[-/]\d\d\d?\d?)
.*(\b\[[:alpha:]]+.?\s\d\d?,?\s\d?\d?\d\d|\b\d\d?[-\s]?[[:alpha:]]+[-\s]?\d\d\d?\d?|\b\d\d?[-/]\d\d?[-/]\d\d\d?\d?)

Update March 26, 2021: \w in original RegEx changed to [[:alpha:]] to include only alphabetic characters.

While I don’t discuss every aspect of this RegEx here, I cover the important aspects of its construction. (I’ve written numerous blogs and an entire book discussing the basics of AutoHotkey Regular Expressions.)

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Working with AutoHotkey Date Formats and Timespan Calculations

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Dates and Time, GUI (Graphical User Interface) Pop-ups, Regular Expressions (RegEx), Switch/Case Command

AutoHotkey Date and Time Calculations Require Special Handling—Check Out This List of How-to’s for Working with Dates

Over the years, I’ve written a number of blogs and many chapters about formatting and calculating dates, but one of my AutoHotkey apps that I think most demonstrate the full range of these capabilities include the scripts HowLongYearMonthDay.ahk and DateConvert.ahk.

DateConvertSend
When combined with the HowLongYearMonthDay.ahk script, the DateStampConvert.ahk script directly converts various ambiguous date formats selected in documents or Web pages into the standard datetime stamp format for inserting into the time-span calculating GUI pop-up.

Rather than using AutoHotkey commands for converting the standard datetime stamp into one of the numerous worldwide date formats, this conversion tool does the reverse and reformats selected dates into the universal datetime stamp.

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AutoHotkey Speed Tips

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, EditPaste command, GUI (Graphical User Interface) Pop-ups, If statements, Loops, Progress Bar, Script Speed, Switch/Case Command, Ternary Operator , , ,

A Collection of Techniques for Speeding Up Your AutoHotkey Scripts

I recently received the follow message from an AutoHotkey user perusing my blogs:

Jack, you can’t post false statements like this:

“However, the ternary does not provide better performance than the traditional If-Then-Else statement format.”

The ternary operator is inarguably faster than if/else and I encourage you to try this yourself.

I recently switched the core logic of my JSON parser from If/Else to ternary and saw an incredible speed increase. To the point where I only use If/If Else/Else statements when absolutely necessary (Ex: If I must have a loop in the middle of a check).

You can code entire blocks using nothing but ternary as long as you use proper parentheses, commas, and function calls.

There is a very well done AHK forum post that covers script optimizations and they report that ternary performs FORTY PERCENT FASTER than if/else statements.

Not sure if hyperlinks are allowed in these comments, so instead I’ll advise googling “AHK How to optimize the speed of a script as much as possible.” The first result should be the article in question. Pages 1 and 4 have tons of script speed gold in them.

I hope you’ll consider correcting/updating this article.

Groggy Otter

Comment on “AutoHotkey Toggles and the Ternary Operator”

I wrote that blog five years ago and I don’t know that I was talking about performance speed. I think I was referring to how the two expressions operate. In any case, I used a poor choice of words and have drawn a line through the comment.

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