I have just finished two scripts in GML(Game Maker Language) that I find to be useful: ucfirst() and ucwords().
If you have been around PHP for anytime, you probably have run across these functions.
Simply put, ucfirst() takes the first letter of a sentence and uppercases it. While upwords() takes the first letter of every word in a sentence and uppercases it. Nice time-saver for stories.
This tutorial requires Game Maker, if you do not have it, you can download it at it's site, located here.
First, add a new font. It doesn't matter what kind it is, just be sure to name it "fnt_text" so that this works.
Then, in a script, place this code:
CODE
///////////////////
//ucfirst(text);//
///////////////////
var oldtext, letter, text;//These define what varables we will be using and that they should only stay in this script.
oldtext = argument[0];//This variable now holds the data that the user types in when executing this script.
letter = string_upper(string_char_at(oldtext, 1));//This uppercases the letter at the start of the sentence.
text = string_replace(oldtext, string_char_at(oldtext, 1), letter);//This replaces the lowercase letter with our uppercase one.
return (text);//Tell the script opener what our text now says.
//NOTE: string_char_at() finds a variable at the given spot in a string, in this case we said 1 was the position.
//ucfirst(text);//
///////////////////
var oldtext, letter, text;//These define what varables we will be using and that they should only stay in this script.
oldtext = argument[0];//This variable now holds the data that the user types in when executing this script.
letter = string_upper(string_char_at(oldtext, 1));//This uppercases the letter at the start of the sentence.
text = string_replace(oldtext, string_char_at(oldtext, 1), letter);//This replaces the lowercase letter with our uppercase one.
return (text);//Tell the script opener what our text now says.
//NOTE: string_char_at() finds a variable at the given spot in a string, in this case we said 1 was the position.
Name that script "ucfirst" without the quote marks.
Make another script, name it "ucwords" and put the following in:
CODE
/////////////////////
//ucwords(text);//
/////////////////////
var text, a;//Once again, defining our variables that we should only use HERE.
text = argument[0];//Same as before, our text is now what the person puts in.
text = ucfirst(text);//Use our other script to upppercase the first letter, nice how GM can do that, eh?
for (a = 1; a <= string_length(text); a += 1)/*This makes a new variable called "a", it starts with the value of 1 because 1 is the starting position in strings; It then checks to see if our "a" variable is smaller than the length of our text to go through; And lastly, if it is, we will increase "a" by one.*/
{
if (string_char_at(text, a) == " ") then//If the letter in the string at our "a" variable's value is a blank spot:
{
text = string_insert(string_upper(string_char_at(text, a + 1)), text, a + 1);/*Then put our uppercased letter in front of
that spot.*/
text = string_delete(text, a + 2, 1);//Finally, we delete the old lowercased letter from our string.
}
}
return(text);/*Now that that the string is finished, and the loops is over(a became equal to our text length) we can tell the user what the new text is.*/
//ucwords(text);//
/////////////////////
var text, a;//Once again, defining our variables that we should only use HERE.
text = argument[0];//Same as before, our text is now what the person puts in.
text = ucfirst(text);//Use our other script to upppercase the first letter, nice how GM can do that, eh?
for (a = 1; a <= string_length(text); a += 1)/*This makes a new variable called "a", it starts with the value of 1 because 1 is the starting position in strings; It then checks to see if our "a" variable is smaller than the length of our text to go through; And lastly, if it is, we will increase "a" by one.*/
{
if (string_char_at(text, a) == " ") then//If the letter in the string at our "a" variable's value is a blank spot:
{
text = string_insert(string_upper(string_char_at(text, a + 1)), text, a + 1);/*Then put our uppercased letter in front of
that spot.*/
text = string_delete(text, a + 2, 1);//Finally, we delete the old lowercased letter from our string.
}
}
return(text);/*Now that that the string is finished, and the loops is over(a became equal to our text length) we can tell the user what the new text is.*/
Then, make a new object, call it "obj_test" or whatever you want.
In it's Draw event, put this code:
CODE
draw_set_font(fnt_text);
draw_text(32, 16, "here is what the text looks like without ucfirst().");
draw_text(32, 32, ucfirst("Here is what it looks like after ucfirst()."));
draw_text(32, 70, "this is what the string looks like without ucwords().");
draw_text(32, 86, ucwords("here is what it looks like with ucwords()."));
/*You can put whatever text you want in the codes above, the scripts will handle it. You can also put more text in below this line.*/
draw_text(32, 16, "here is what the text looks like without ucfirst().");
draw_text(32, 32, ucfirst("Here is what it looks like after ucfirst()."));
draw_text(32, 70, "this is what the string looks like without ucwords().");
draw_text(32, 86, ucwords("here is what it looks like with ucwords()."));
/*You can put whatever text you want in the codes above, the scripts will handle it. You can also put more text in below this line.*/
There you have it, the scripts work.
I uploaded the file, to show you how it worked.
And if case the file that I uploaded messes up, here is a link to the file.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions feel free to PM here on this forum, or email me.
