Read a block of text basing on a tag on that block

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VS2012

I have a multiple texts files that contains only about 5 lines per file. These files contains certain elements that I need on my methods, but since I have a lot of methods I am now having more than 10 texts files in a folder, though having them is non-problematic at the moment, I think having too many text files would pose a problem in the future. So I was wondering if there is a way for me to read a block in a text file basing on tag. say for example I would have this content in a textfile

[object1]
assdfg
asdfghjhgyffhgj
sdghteshjpjkpogkwpotkopg
asdfsfhthhsfgfgsg

[object2]
sadfgjrtsg
gryrhdjdhdhd
retteryhdhdf
sd
asdar

what I'm trying to achieve is to have a method to call in my C# project to read "object1" and it will return data string of all lines below the tag [object1],same goes for object2. It's even ok if the returned string will become 1 line only, but it would be wonderful to retain the line numbers :)

Should there be already existing samples or answers please refer a link. Thanks in advance. :)

Posted 28-Jul-14 22:58pm

phyxian

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Pikoh · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-29T00:25:00

Solution 1

So you want, if i understand you, a method to read/write .ini files or something similar. Try this An INI file handling class using C#[^]

EDIT:

Ok,try this to read a whole section:

First,add this dll import:

C#

[DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
        private static extern int GetPrivateProfileSection(string lpAppName, byte[] lpszReturnBuffer, int nSize, string lpFileName);

and then,add this method:

C#

public string[] IniReadSection(string Section)
        {
            
            byte[] buffer = new byte[2048];
            GetPrivateProfileSection(Section, buffer, 2048, this.path);
            String[] tmp = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buffer).Trim('\0').Split('\0');
            
            return tmp;

        }

That will return a string array with all the keys in that section

Posted 29-Jul-14 0:25am

Pikoh

Updated 30-Jul-14 4:36am

v2

Comments

phyxian 30-Jul-14 10:06am

Sorry for the late response and thanks for that solution! the link was a very helpful one though I noticed that when the readini on that class was called it only returns the line that is directly after the "=" of the key, what I need is to read the whole section(even if the section contains around 10 lines) not just a single line after the key. I tried putting away the key but I get some errors on it. What other options do I have here? BTW I'll be trying to tweak the code.

Pikoh 30-Jul-14 10:18am

It's been a long time since i last used ini files...but if i remember well if you pass null in the key value,it should return all the section.

phyxian 30-Jul-14 10:24am

the null value only returns the keyname I used, not the value of the whole section. Tried also with empty string and "" with no results.

Pikoh 30-Jul-14 10:36am

O.k...see my improved solution and try that code,i think that will help you

phyxian 30-Jul-14 10:59am

Sorry but I got an error : Cannot implicitly convert type 'string[]' to 'string', though I dont see red lines on the part where the VS told me where the error is, but it says the error is on the "public string[] IniReadSection(string Section)" during build I cant get it to work.

phyxian 30-Jul-14 11:05am

I was able to get it to work by putting it in a separate class but the result it returns is just System.String[]

phyxian 30-Jul-14 11:10am

I finally got it :) thanks so much! I failed to realize that I would be needing to convert the string[] to string. (How stupid of me.) anyway thanks for that great answer.

Pikoh 30-Jul-14 11:12am

You're welcome :)