Load Settings from .ini

[Mark Dunham]

Does anyone have a good example of loading settings from an .ini file? Or is this deemed outdated at this point. I can load settings from text files, and files with extension that I create but wondered if there was a standard way I am not thinking of. Case in point I have program that plays music if I set the music off the next time I run that program I would like it to still have the music off.

[ntech]

Well, most of the .ini files are in this form:

this = that


So for your program, it'd be


musicOff=True


To load it:


global musicOff

open "settings.ini" for input as #i

while eof(#i) = 0

line input #i, str$
call process$ str$

wend

close #i

print "The music is " + boolToTxt$(musicOff)

function boolToTxt$(int)

if int <> 0 then

boolToTxt$ = "True"

else

boolToTxt$ = "False"

end if

end function

sub process$ arg$

if word$(arg$, 1, "=") = "musicOff" then

if word(arg$, 2, "=") = "True" then

musicOff = 1

else

musicOff = 0

end if

end if

end sub


[Chris Iverson]

While MS tends to recommend the registry for centralization purposes, there's nothing wrong with using INI files, and in fact, Windows still has built-in APIs to simplify working with them.

'Creates an INI file with this format:
'
'[section]
'key=value
'
'Actual contents of file created:
'
'[sample]
'SomeParameter=MyData

section$ = "sample"
key$ = "SomeParameter"
value$ = "MyData"
iniFile$ = "test.ini"

a = WriteINIData(iniFile$, section$, key$, value$)

print ReadINIData$(iniFile$, section$, key$)


Function ReadINIData$(iniFile$, section$, key$)
   bufSize = 1024
   buf$ = space$(bufSize)

   CallDLL #kernel32, "GetPrivateProfileStringA",_
   section$ as ptr,_
   key$ as ptr,_
   0 as ulong,_
   buf$ as ptr,_
   bufSize as long,_
   iniFile$ as ptr,_
   ret as long

   ReadINIData$ = left$(buf$, ret)
End Function

Function WriteINIData(iniFile$, section$, key$, data$)
   CallDLL #kernel32, "WritePrivateProfileStringA",_
   section$ as ptr,_
   key$ as ptr,_
   data$ as ptr,_
   iniFile$ as ptr,_
   WriteINIData as long
End Function

[Mark Dunham]

Great examples I will have to see what I can work up. Appreciate it.