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Registry Class

By , 17 Nov 1999
 

OK, there are many registry classes out there, but this is the one I wrote. I have used it for years in many commercial applications, so it is quite well tested in terms of reading and writing values. The only weakness of the class is that it does not have extensive support for deleting or copying keys.

There are a few useful features in the class worth noting:

  • When reading a value, you can provide a default value in case the operation fails.
  • You can read and write objects such as CFonts, CPoints, etc. from/to the registry.

How to Use the Class

  1. Declare a CRegistry object local to your function.
  2. Call CRegistry::SetRootKey(HKEY hRootKey) to set the root key.
  3. Call CRegistry::SetKey(CString strKey, BOOL bCanCreate). Pass bCanCreate=TRUE to write to the registry. Pass bCanCreate=FALSE to read from the registry.

Here is an example...

void CMyApp::ReadRegistry()
{
	CRegistry Reg();
	Reg.SetRootKey(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE);
	if (Reg.SetKey("Software\\MyApp\\Settings", FALSE))
	{
		m_nData = Reg.ReadInt("Data1", 0);
		pi = Reg.ReadFloat("Pi", 3.14159);
		m_strUserName = Reg.ReadString("UserName", "Default User Name");
		Reg.ReadFont(&m_font);
	}
	else
	{
		TRACE("Failed to open key\n");
	}

}

It's just that simple!

I have included the class interface below to illustrate the variety of member functions.

#ifndef __REGISTRY_H__
#define __REGISTRY_H__

class CRegistry
{
public:
	CRegistry();
	~CRegistry();

int m_nLastError;

// CRegistry properties	
protected:
	HKEY m_hRootKey;
	BOOL m_bLazyWrite;
	CString m_strCurrentPath;

public:
	inline BOOL PathIsValid() {
		return (m_strCurrentPath.GetLength() > 0); }
	inline CString GetCurrentPath() {
		return m_strCurrentPath; }
	inline HKEY GetRootKey() {
		return m_hRootKey; }


//CRegistry	methods
public:
	BOOL ClearKey();
	BOOL SetRootKey(HKEY hRootKey);
	BOOL CreateKey(CString strKey);
	BOOL DeleteKey(CString strKey);
	BOOL DeleteValue(CString strName);
	int GetDataSize(CString strValueName);
	DWORD GetDataType(CString strValueName);
	int GetSubKeyCount();
	int GetValueCount();
	BOOL KeyExists(CString strKey, HKEY hRootKey = NULL);
	BOOL SetKey(CString strKey, BOOL bCanCreate);
	BOOL ValueExists(CString strName);
	void RenameValue(CString strOldName, CString strNewName);

	// data reading functions
	COleDateTime ReadDateTime(CString strName, COleDateTime dtDefault);
	double ReadFloat(CString strName, double fDefault);
	CString ReadString(CString strName, CString strDefault);
	int ReadInt(CString strName, int nDefault);
	BOOL ReadBool(CString strName, BOOL bDefault);
	COLORREF ReadColor(CString strName, COLORREF rgbDefault);
	BOOL ReadFont(CString strName, CFont* pFont);
	BOOL ReadPoint(CString strName, CPoint* pPoint);
	BOOL ReadSize(CString strName, CSize* pSize);
	BOOL ReadRect(CString strName, CRect* pRect);
	DWORD ReadDword(CString strName, DWORD dwDefault);

	// data writing functions
	BOOL WriteBool(CString strName, BOOL bValue);
	BOOL WriteDateTime(CString strName, COleDateTime dtValue);
	BOOL WriteString(CString strName, CString strValue);
	BOOL WriteFloat(CString strName, double fValue);
	BOOL WriteInt(CString strName, int nValue);
	BOOL WriteColor(CString strName, COLORREF rgbValue);
	BOOL WriteFont(CString strName, CFont* pFont);
	BOOL WritePoint(CString strName, CPoint* pPoint);
	BOOL WriteSize(CString strName, CSize* pSize);
	BOOL WriteRect(CString strName, CRect* pRect);
	BOOL WriteDword(CString strName, DWORD dwValue);

};// end of CRegistry class definition


#endif

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here

About the Author

Robert Pittenger, MCPD-EAD
President Starpoint Software Inc.
United States United States
Member
Bob Pittenger is founder and President of Starpoint Software Inc. He holds a B.A. degree from Miami University, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Purdue University, and an MBA from Xavier University. He has been programming since 1993, starting with Windows application development in C++/MFC and moving to C# and .NET around 2005 and is a .NET Microsoft Certified Professional Developer.
 
Bob is the author of two books:
Billionaire: How the Ultra-Rich Built Their Fortunes Through Good and Evil and What You Can Learn from Them
and
Wealthonomics: The Most Important Economic and Financial Concepts that Can Make You Rich Fast.
Visit http://www.billionairebook.net for more information.

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Comments and Discussions

 
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NewsRe: WriteDwordmemberDan Madden19 Jun '06 - 18:39 
Check out my new posting. It has this functionality...you could also use to get an idea how to modify his code (or whatever you want).
 
http://www.codeproject.com/system/NtRegistry.asp[^]
 
Regards,
 
Dan
GeneralUNICODE bugmemberWarren Stevens11 Aug '05 - 6:17 
Please note that there is a UNICODE bug in CRegistry::WriteString
the last parameter for RegSetValueEx should be number of bytes, NOT the existing number of characters, so it must be multiplied by sizeof(TCHAR) to fix it. It must also be cast to a DWORD to get rid of level 4 warnings.
 
Warren
GeneralRe: UNICODE bugmembersGrabert11 Sep '07 - 21:26 
There is a lot more to be fixed:
 
- change all LPSTR to LPCTSTR
- change strlen() to _tcslen()
- cast file.GetLength() to (DWORD)file.GetLength();
- change all char to TCHAR
 
This has to be done for all string handling routines, like ReadString, too. Roll eyes | :rolleyes:
Hope this will help..
QuestionKEY_ALL_ACCESS for reading ?membercross bones style23 Mar '05 - 3:20 
I've noted that if you are a non-priviliged user and you want to read the Registry, you may encounter problem when you use CRegistry::KeyExists and CRegistry::SetKey.
 
This seems due to the fact that these methods call ::RegOpenKeyEx with KEY_ALL_ACCESS parameter. I've seen that if you use KEY_READ everything is ok.
 
I'm not familiar with Microsoft security access masks, MSDN says that KEY_ALL_ACCESS is a combination of KEY_READ, KEY_WRITE and KEY_CREATE_LINK but it is not clear whether the combination is AND or OR.
From this, it seems to me that KEY_ALL_ACCESS requires both read and write rights, the latter not being available to a non-priviliged user.
 
So, why KEY_ALL_ACCESS has been used for reading ? Isn't KEY_READ more appropriate ?
AnswerRe: KEY_ALL_ACCESS for reading ?memberkid_sputnik7 Oct '07 - 5:59 
i agree. i would perhaps add a method for determining the current access level? i added this hack for my own program using this class.
GeneralRe: KEY_ALL_ACCESS for reading ?memberkid_sputnik7 Oct '07 - 6:15 
if anyone is interested, here is my hack:
 
in protected section, i added
 
int m_Access;
 

i set this to KEY_ALL_ACCESS is the constructor.
 
then, i added these methods to the header file:
 

// changes current access level to KEY_READ.
void SetToReadAccess() { m_Access = KEY_READ; }
 
// changes current access level to KEY_WRITE.
void SetToWriteAccess() { m_Access = KEY_WRITE; }
 
// changes current access level to KEY_EXECUTE.
void SetToExecuteAccess() { m_Access = KEY_EXECUTE; }
 
// changes current access level to KEY_ALL_ACCESS. This is the default.
void SetToAllAccess() { m_Access = KEY_ALL_ACCESS; }
 
i thought this method, of the access being set by the last SetToAccess... call fit in with the way the rest of the class works (like, main and sub keys being remembered from the last set calls), and this avoids the user having to dig out the access constants in the winnt.h file. i excluded the specific access constants, and just went with these 4 that are combos of the original ones.
 
with this i am finally able to use this class, i am reading values set by the VCP FTDI USB-to-ComPort driver, and it wouldn't read with KEY_ALL_ACCESS privelages.
 
- daniel b
GeneralAnother Thanks from me!memberhazem-mk22 May '04 - 3:43 
Thanks alot, thats exactly what I was looking for;)
GeneralExcellentmemberBalkrishna Talele11 May '04 - 21:08 
Mr Robert, you made me ROBOT!!! No more words to utter!!!
cheers
Balkrishna Talele
GeneralAn Excellent Piece of CodememberKaren030227 Nov '03 - 19:31 
This is an excellent piece of code Robert. It turned what was becoming a nightmarish task into a breeze! Thanks so much for sharing it!!
 
Karen
GeneralBugfix: Reading/writing long stringsmemberPEK21 Jan '03 - 2:46 
The original version limited textstrings to 255 characters, I needed more. I changed WriteString() and ReadString() to get what I wanted. The following doesn't have any limit and works well in Unicode too. This includes the code from my previous bugfix message.
 
BOOL CRegistry::WriteString(CString strName, CString strValue)
{
	ASSERT(m_strCurrentPath.GetLength() > 0);
	BOOL bSuccess = TRUE;
	HKEY hKey;
 
	if (::RegOpenKeyEx(m_hRootKey, LPCTSTR(m_strCurrentPath), 0,
		KEY_WRITE, &hKey) != ERROR_SUCCESS) return FALSE;
 
	if (::RegSetValueEx(	hKey, 
				LPCTSTR(strName),
				NULL,
				REG_SZ,
				(LPBYTE) ( (const TCHAR*) strValue),
				(strValue.GetLength()+1)*sizeof(TCHAR)
				)
		 != ERROR_SUCCESS) bSuccess = FALSE;
 
	if (!m_bLazyWrite) ::RegFlushKey(hKey);
	::RegCloseKey(hKey);
	return bSuccess;
}
 
CString CRegistry::ReadString(CString strName, CString strDefault)
{
	DWORD dwType = REG_SZ;
	DWORD dwSize = 0;
	BOOL bSuccess = TRUE;
	HKEY hKey;
							 
	ASSERT(m_strCurrentPath.GetLength() > 0);
 
	// make sure it is the proper type
	dwType = GetDataType(strName);
	
	if (dwType != REG_SZ && dwType != REG_EXPAND_SZ)
	{
		return strDefault;
	}
 
	m_nLastError = ::RegOpenKeyEx(m_hRootKey, LPCTSTR(m_strCurrentPath), 0,
		KEY_READ, &hKey);
	if (m_nLastError != ERROR_SUCCESS) return strDefault;
 
	//First, get size of string
	::RegQueryValueEx(	hKey,
			LPCTSTR(strName), 
			NULL,
			&dwType, 
			NULL,	//Don't require any data
			&dwSize);
 
	//Add one extra character
	dwSize += sizeof(TCHAR);
 
	//Allcolate memory
	TCHAR* sz = new TCHAR[ dwSize/sizeof(TCHAR) ];
 
	//Do the actual reading
	m_nLastError = ::RegQueryValueEx(	hKey, 
					LPCTSTR(strName), 
					NULL,
					&dwType, 
					(LPBYTE)sz, 
					&dwSize);
 
	//Save what we got, if we got anything
	CString retValue;
	if(bSuccess)
		retValue = sz;
 
	//Clean up
	delete [] sz;
 
	if (m_nLastError != ERROR_SUCCESS) bSuccess = FALSE;
	::RegCloseKey(hKey);	
	
	if (!bSuccess) return strDefault;
	return retValue;
}

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