# List Iterator - custom delimiter, optional blank-skip

**URL:** https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/list-iterator-custom-delimiter-optional-blank-skip/3764
**Category:** Feature Requests
**Created:** [November 17, 2006, 9:06am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/list-iterator-custom-delimiter-optional-blank-skip/3764 "2006-11-17T09:06:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![deleted\_user](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/user_avatar/www.finalbuilder.com/deleted_user/32/937_2.png) [@deleted\_user](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/deleted_user)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2006, 9:06am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/list-iterator-custom-delimiter-optional-blank-skip/3764/1 "2006-11-17T09:06:22Z")

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I’d like to see 2 options added to the list iterator action:  
  
First it would be nice to be able to change the item seperator character (I assume that the default is CR/LF). A similiar request was made here:  
[https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums.aspx?forumid=7&postid=1543&view=topic](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums.aspx?forumid=7&postid=1543&view=topic)  
If you do add this option, please also add an option to ignore quoted seperators. So for example this string:  
“Peter, Paul”, "Mary, John"  
Would be seen as 2 items, not 4.  
  
  
Second, I would like to see an option to ignore blank items. I aways have to put an “If ListItem \<\> Blank then …” action inside my list iterator actions, and it just seems like 1 extra step I shouldn’t have to do.

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### Author: ![tate](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/e19b73/32.png) [@tate](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/tate)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 2:05am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/list-iterator-custom-delimiter-optional-blank-skip/3764/2 "2006-11-20T02:05:47Z")

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Hi Mike,  
  
The List Iterator should already ignore blank items… do you have a reproducible case for this?

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### Author: ![deleted\_user](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/user_avatar/www.finalbuilder.com/deleted_user/32/937_2.png) [@deleted\_user](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/deleted_user)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2006, 8:08am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/list-iterator-custom-delimiter-optional-blank-skip/3764/3 "2006-11-21T08:08:12Z")

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Sure:  
  
New project, create variables ListVar and LoopVar  
Add a DOS Action, set it to “DIR”, start in “C:”, log to "ListVar"  
Add List Iterator Action, set the list value to %ListVar% and the variable to LoopVar  
Under the iterator add an Action Group, set it’s name to “%LoopVar%” literally, with the quotes  
  
Run the script, DIR will spit out a few blank lines in the header and footer. Look under the List Iterator items, and you will find Action Groups titled “” - proving that the blank lines made it through the iterator.  
  
My guess is that you scrub for blanks lines BEFORE you de-reference the variable(s), but not after?

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### Author: ![angus](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@angus](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/angus)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2006, 12:00pm UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/list-iterator-custom-delimiter-optional-blank-skip/3764/4 "2006-11-22T12:00:42Z")

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Hi Mike,  
  
You were correct about the way skipping blank lines worked until now. The iterator was only skipping lines where the entre (unexpanded) property line evaluated to a blank line (ie a completely blank line, or a line referencing a variable which was completely empty.)  
  
I fixed it so that the next test build will have a “Skip Blank Lines” option, on by default, which skips all blank lines.  
  
Regards,  
  
Angus