How do I split an incoming string?
I am sending a list of servo positions via the serial connection to the arduino in the following format
1:90&2:80&3:180
Which would be parsed as:
servoId : Position & servoId : Position & servoId : Position
How would I split these values up, and convert them to an integer?
Contrarily to other answers, I'd rather stay away from
String
for the following reasons:- dynamic memory usage (that may quickly lead to heap fragmentation and memory exhaustion)
- quite slow due to construction/destruction/assignment operators
In an embedded environment like Arduino (even for a Mega that has more SRAM), I'd rather use standard C functions:
strchr()
: search for a character in a C string (i.e.char *
)strtok()
: splits a C string into substrings, based on a separator characteratoi()
: converts a C string to anint
That would lead to the following code sample:
// Calculate based on max input size expected for one command #define INPUT_SIZE 30 ... // Get next command from Serial (add 1 for final 0) char input[INPUT_SIZE + 1]; byte size = Serial.readBytes(input, INPUT_SIZE); // Add the final 0 to end the C string input[size] = 0; // Read each command pair char* command = strtok(input, "&"); while (command != 0) { // Split the command in two values char* separator = strchr(command, ':'); if (separator != 0) { // Actually split the string in 2: replace ':' with 0 *separator = 0; int servoId = atoi(command); ++separator; int position = atoi(separator); // Do something with servoId and position } // Find the next command in input string command = strtok(0, "&"); }
The advantage here is that no dynamic memory allocation takes place; you can even declare
input
as a local variable inside a function that would read the commands and execute them; once the function is returned the size occupied byinput
(in the stack) is recovered.Hadn't thought of the memory issue. this is great.
Excellent. My answer was very "arduino" based and using typical arduino SDK functions which a novel user could be more used to, but this answer is what should be done for "production" systems. In general, try to escape from dynamic memory allocation in embedded systems.
This function can be used to separate a string into pieces based on what the separating character is.
String xval = getValue(myString, ':', 0); String yval = getValue(myString, ':', 1); Serial.println("Y:" + yval); Serial.print("X:" + xval);
Convert String to int
int xvalue = xvalue.toInt(xval); int yvalue = yvalue.toInt(yval);
This Chunk of code takes a string and separates it based on a given character and returns The item between the separating character
String getValue(String data, char separator, int index) { int found = 0; int strIndex[] = { 0, -1 }; int maxIndex = data.length() - 1; for (int i = 0; i <= maxIndex && found <= index; i++) { if (data.charAt(i) == separator || i == maxIndex) { found++; strIndex[0] = strIndex[1] + 1; strIndex[1] = (i == maxIndex) ? i+1 : i; } } return found > index ? data.substring(strIndex[0], strIndex[1]) : ""; }
thats a beautiful perfect answer! thanks a lot !
You could do something like the following, but please take into account several things:
If you use
readStringUntil()
, it will wait until it receives the character or timeouts. Thus, with your current string, the last position will last a little longer, as it has to wait. You can add a trailing&
to avoid this timout. You can easily check this behavior in your monitor, try to send the string with and without the extra&
and you will see such timeout delay.You actually do not need the servo index, you can just send your string of positions, and get the servo index by the value position in the string, something like:
90&80&180&
. If you use the servo index, maybe you want to check it (convert toint
, and then match the loop index i) to ensure that nothing went wrong with your message.You have to check that the returning string from
readStringUntil
is not empty. If the function timeouts, you didn't receive enough data, and thus any attempt to extract yourint
values will produce strange results.void setup() { Serial.begin(9600); } void loop() { for(int i=1; i<=3; i++) { String servo = Serial.readStringUntil(':'); if(servo != ""){ //here you could check the servo number String pos = Serial.readStringUntil('&'); int int_pos=pos.toInt(); Serial.println("Pos"); Serial.println(int_pos); } } }
This seems like a very good solution thank you. The example clears it up perfectly
What if we had an undefined number of servo inputs? in my example there was 3. But what if sometimes it was more, or less. Can you offer any suggestion for handling such a scenario
Sure: There are two possibilities. 1. Send first the number of servos: 3:val1&val2&val3&, read such number prior to starting the loop. 2. Use a different terminator to indicate you have no more servos, loop until you find it: val1&val2&val3&#, for example.
Glad this solution helped you, @ValrikRobot, could you please validate the answer if it was useful?
or you can just remove the for, and so the code will just work any time you send a command.
You can use
Stream.readStringUntil(terminator)
passing a different terminator for each part.On each part you then call
String.toInt
Simplest solution is to use sscanf().
int id1, id2, id3; int pos1, pos2, pos3; char* buf = "1:90&2:80&3:180"; int n = sscanf(buf, "%d:%d&%d:%d&%d:%d", &id1, &pos1, &id2, &pos2, &id3, &pos3); Serial.print(F("n=")); Serial.println(n); Serial.print(F("id1=")); Serial.print(id1); Serial.print(F(", pos1=")); Serial.println(pos1); Serial.print(F("id2=")); Serial.print(id2); Serial.print(F(", pos2=")); Serial.println(pos2); Serial.print(F("id3=")); Serial.print(id3); Serial.print(F(", pos3=")); Serial.println(pos3);
This give the following output:
n=6 id1=1, pos1=90 id2=2, pos2=80 id3=3, pos3=180
Cheers!
It is not working for serial.read()... any idea why? I get the following error: `invalid conversion from 'int' to 'char*' [-fpermissive]`
See example at: https://github.com/BenTommyE/Arduino_getStringPartByNr
// splitting a string and return the part nr index split by separator String getStringPartByNr(String data, char separator, int index) { int stringData = 0; //variable to count data part nr String dataPart = ""; //variable to hole the return text for(int i = 0; i<data.length()-1; i++) { //Walk through the text one letter at a time if(data[i]==separator) { //Count the number of times separator character appears in the text stringData++; } else if(stringData==index) { //get the text when separator is the rignt one dataPart.concat(data[i]); } else if(stringData>index) { //return text and stop if the next separator appears - to save CPU-time return dataPart; break; } } //return text if this is the last part return dataPart; }
String getValue(String data, char separator, int index) { int maxIndex = data.length() - 1; int j = 0; String chunkVal = ""; for (int i = 0; i <= maxIndex && j <= index; i++) { chunkVal.concat(data[i]); if (data[i] == separator) { j++; if (j > index) { chunkVal.trim(); return chunkVal; } chunkVal = ""; } else if ((i == maxIndex) && (j < index)) { chunkVal = ""; return chunkVal; } } }
jfpoilpret provided great answer for parsing serial command on Arduino. However Attiny85 doesn't have bidirectional serial - SoftwareSerial has to be used. This is how you port same code for Attiny85
#include <SoftwareSerial.h> // Calculate based on max input size expected for one command #define INPUT_SIZE 30 // Initialize SoftwareSerial SoftwareSerial mySerial(3, 4); // RX=PB3, TX=PB4 // Parameter for receiving Serial command (add 1 for final 0) char input[INPUT_SIZE + 1]; void setup() { mySerial.begin(9600); } void loop() { // We need this counter to simulate Serial.readBytes which SoftwareSerial lacks int key = 0; // Start receiving command from Serial while (mySerial.available()) { delay(3); // Delay to allow buffer to fill, code gets unstable on Attiny85 without this for some reason // Don't read more characters than defined if (key < INPUT_SIZE && mySerial.available()) { input[key] = mySerial.read(); key += 1; } } if (key > 0) { // Add the final 0 to end the C string input[key] = 0; // Read each command pair char* command = strtok(input, "&"); while (command != 0) { // Split the command in two values char* separator = strchr(command, ':'); if (separator != 0) { // Actually split the string in 2: replace ':' with 0 *separator = 0; int servoId = atoi(command); ++separator; int position = atoi(separator); } // Find the next command in input string command = strtok(0, "&"); } } }
Attiny85 schematics for pin numbers
Sketch compiles into:
Sketch uses 2244 bytes (27%) of program storage space. Maximum is 8192 bytes. Global variables use 161 bytes (31%) of dynamic memory, leaving 351 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 512 bytes.
So there is plenty of space and memory for the rest of code
How to read from serial on an ATtiny85 isn't really part of the question.
Sorry for diverging from question, but community and resources available for Attiny is way smaller than for Arduino. People like me looking for answers use `Arduino` keyword and sometimes get into very tricky situations as implementing Arduino code onto Attiny is not always trivial. Had to convert original code to work on Attiny, tested it working and decided to share it
This site is in Q&A format. Answers should answer the question. Yours just adds something that's unrelated to it.
char str[] = "1:90&2:80&3:180"; // test sample serial input from servo int servoId; int position; char* p = str; while (sscanf(p, "%d:%d", &servoId, &position) == 2) { // process servoId, position here // while (*p && *p++ != '&'); // to next id/pos pair }
It's not an answer to your question but it may be useful for someone. If your string has a specific prefix, then you can use simply
startsWith
andsubstring
. E.g.void loop () if(Serial.available()){ command = Serial.readStringUntil('\n'); Serial.println("Received command: " + command); if(command.startsWith("height")) { Serial.println(command.substring(7)); } } }
And then send
height 10
what will extract10
.
License under CC-BY-SA with attribution
Content dated before 6/26/2020 9:53 AM
majid mahmoudi 2 years ago
i have slave(arduino uno) send string via serial 30;12.4;1 and 1 master (esp8266) recive string i want in master have seperated data like 30 12.4 1 and save it in micro sd card