Re: need help with a defun

[Bernd Wolter]

Joakim Hove <hove@bccs.no> writes:

> Hello,
> 
> as another poster already commented; it virtually impossible to
> provide any useful help without some examples of text you want to
> process. 
> 
> 
> HTH - Joakim
> 
I agree - I only didn't want to bloat the original post further. Here
goes: 

original file:

--------------------------------------------------------
some stuff
more lines
string1; string2; string3;
blank line

aslkfdslfkj asdlfjdkf 
string1; string2; string4;
bloat
strange

string2; string5;
string4;

--------------------------------------------------------

after first step (done mostly via keep-lines):

--------------------------------------------------------
string1; string2; string3;
string1; string2; string4;
string2; string5;
string4;

--------------------------------------------------------

after second step:

--------------------------------------------------------
string1
string2
string3
string1
string2
string4
string2
string5
string4

--------------------------------------------------------

after final step:

--------------------------------------------------------
3       string2
2       string1
2       string4
1       string3
1       string5

--------------------------------------------------------

I got all of this working (even for substrings) but run into the
problem lined out in my original post when the original file exceeds a
certain number of target strings. The temporary solution posted there
works for bigger files but fails way before possible file lengths I
intend this program for.

The problem lies in step two and for that I used the slightly abridged
(only for function names and doc string - to protect the innocent)
defun I already posted.

TIA

Bernd