Use String as Fill() data

Programming Questions

cavanaughb

in Programming Questions • 5 months ago

Hi all,

Relatively new to Processing and forums and I have a question about Strings and Fill. I am loading a text file containing data such as:

139,138,132

83,86,95

145,116,124

160,103,111

I can successfully load that string data as an array and print it while running in the draw() function, but I'd like to use those strings to control the fill() command when creating shapes. I think the problem is using a string for the fill. The error I receive is: "The method fill(int) in the type PApplet is not applicable for the arguments (String)". Here is the code:

void draw() {
String colorListData[] = loadStrings("testData.txt");
for (int i = 0 ; i < colorListData.length; i++) {
fill(colorListData[i]);
rect (0, int(random(0,999)), width, 5);
}

Any help would be very appreciated! Thank you!

Replies(6)

jane38

Re: Use String as Fill() data

5 months ago

here is a way

String[] colorListData;
void setup(){
size(200,200);
colorListData = loadStrings("testData.txt");
}
void draw() {
for (int i = 0 ; i < colorListData.length; i++) {
String[] list = split(colorListData[i], ',');
int r = Integer.parseInt(list[0]);
int g = Integer.parseInt(list[1]);
int b = Integer.parseInt(list[2]);
fill(r,g,b);
rect (0, int(random(0,999)), width, 5);
}
}

GoToLoop

Re: Use String as Fill() data

5 months ago

Here's an alternative version:

String[] colorListData;
final static short THICKNESS = 15, FPS = 1;
final static color BG = -1;

void setup() {
  size(300, 300);
  frameRate(FPS);
  colorListData = loadStrings("testData.txt");
}

void draw() {
  background(BG);
  
  for (int i = colorListData.length; i-- != 0;) {
    color[] channels = int( split(colorListData[i], ',') );
    fill(channels[0], channels[1], channels[2]);
    rect(0, random(height - THICKNESS), width, THICKNESS);
  }
}

PhiLho

Re: Use String as Fill() data

5 months ago

color[] channels = int( split(colorListData[i], ',') );

would be less confusing if you used int[] instead of color[], even if they are the same thing.

GoToLoop

Re: Use String as Fill() data

5 months ago

I use syntactic sugar data-type color instead of int as a theme, when its content is color related!

cavanaughb

Re: Use String as Fill() data

5 months ago

Thank you, everyone.

This worked perfectly!

PhiLho

Re: Use String as Fill() data

5 months ago

" its content is color related!"
Perhaps, but the color (pseudo-)type is supposed to be a full color (RGB or RGBA) whiile here, you use it for a channel only. It is like using a PVector to store one coordinate, because it is coordinate-related... (except there is no memory waste with color, but that's the idea).