How to write nth line below specific text in VBS - vbscript

Question

In a text file consisting of thousands of records, each having greater than 20 lines of data, I need to count the 14th line after the start of every record if that 14th line is blank. The line is either blank or contains a date.
The start of every record is the same: "1 Start of new record"
Scenario:
1 Start of new record
2 some data
3 "
4 "
5 "
6 "
7 "
8 "
9 "
10 "
11 "
12 "
13 "
14
...
1 Start of new record
...
8 "
9 "
10 "
...
14 10/19/2019
...
In this simple scenario, the result should be 1. I have code that copies line 1 of every record into a second file.
The result obviously being:
1 Start of new record
1 Start of new record
...
Here is the code I have:
Const ForReading = 1
Dim words(1)
Dim msg
words(0) = "1 Start of New Record"
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set inFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile("c:\Temp\altest.txt", ForReading)
Set outFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile("c:\Temp\altest_output.txt", 8, True)
Do Until inFile.AtEndOfStream
strSearchString = inFile.ReadLine
For i = 0 To UBound(words)-1
If InStr(strSearchString,words(i)) Then
msg = msg&strSearchString&vbcrlf
End If
next
Loop
inFile.Close
outfile.WriteLine msg
WScript.Echo "Done!"
This seems like a good start, but again, I need to count the 14th line after the start of every record if that 14th line is blank.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
-Alel

Answer 1

Hardly elegant but something like this should get you on your way. This doesn't use SkipLine, it just marks the next line of interest:
Option Explicit 'force explicit variable declaration, this is just good practice
Const ForReading = 1
Dim strContent
Dim Offset : Offset = 14 'define the 14th 'line'
Dim StartLine
Dim NewRecordMarker : NewRecordMarker = "1 Start of new record" 'just use a string to match
Dim objFSO, inFile, outFile
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set inFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile("e:\Temp\altest.txt", ForReading)
Set outFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile("e:\Temp\altest_output.txt", 8, True)
'notice we're only reading forward
'that means we can set the next LineOfInterest without having to worry about
'exceeding AtEndOfStream like we would if we'd use SkipLine
'this is just simpler.
'this obviously falls apart when the line of interest is NOT the 14th line
Do Until inFile.AtEndOfStream
Dim LineOfInterest
strContent = inFile.ReadLine 'inFile.Line will at 2 at this point because we just read it
If strContent = NewRecordMarker Then 'found a new record, we want to look 14 lines from here
LineOfInterest = inFile.line - 1 + Offset ' -1 or we'll overshoot our target
End If
If inFile.Line = LineOfInterest Then 'this is the line we want to inspect
outFile.WriteLine strContent 'just write out entire value, no checking for date here
End If
Loop
inFile.Close
outFile.Close
WScript.Echo "Done!"