Function: choosefiles( )

Syntax

choosefiles( {<file> {,<type> {,<title>}}} )

Type

string[ ]

Returns

Enables the operator to select one or more file names via an interactive "File(s) Select" window. When this function is invoked, a file selection popup dialog window is displayed and the user can scan directories and choose files.

Parameters

<file>
An indication of the start directory and a default file name for the selection. If this parameter is a file then the file name part is used as the default file name, and the directory in which the file resides is used as the start directory. If this parameter is a directory then no default file name is used. If this parameter is omitted, the current directory is used for the start directory and no default file name is used.

<type>
An numeric indication of which files are to be displayed in the selection window. The inclusion of this parameter restricts the choice by file extension and is available on Win32 systems only. Possible values for <type> are as follows:

Value Type Extensions

0 All files *.*

1 Entity files *.e

2 Macros and menu files *.cmd *.men

3 Image files *.bmp *.ecw *.gif *.ico *.jpg *.pcx
*.png *.ras *.sun *.tif *.wbmp
*.xpm *.xwd

4 Application files *.fsa *.mxa

5 XML files *.xml

6 Import files *.eim

7 Binary executables *.exe

8 Text data files *.csv *.dat *.txt

9 Dynamic libraries *.dll

10 AutoCad files *.dwg *.dxf

11 Cursor files *.ani *.cur *.xbm *.xpm

12 Audio files *.wav

13 HTML files *.htm *.html

<title>
A string value providing a title for the file selection dialog window. If this is omitted, the text File(s) Selection is used.

Notes

The files are selected by pressing the Open button in the popup window. If at least one file is selected then the function returns the number of selected files plus 1. The first value is the directory containing the selected files, the second and subsequent values are the names of the selected files.

Pressing the Cancel button will abort the operation and return 0 values.

The position of the dialog window is determined by the value of menu_position.

No action is done to the selected files. This is the responsibility of the caller.

The system numeric identifier found is set by this function. It gets set to the number of selected files on a successful operation, or 0 on dialog cancel or error.