A Simple Class to Read and Write INI Files

• Download source files - 3.36 KB
• Download demo project - 20.47 KB

Introduction

This is a further exploration if the INI file class theme started by Xiangxiong Jian (xiaohe521) and Adam (aejw) on The Code Project. The main idea remains pretty much the same: the class is a thin wrapper around Win32 <stockticker>API for reading/writing INI files. However, I was trying to gear my class more towards the <stockticker>MFC.

This class may be useful if your application needs to access both registry and INI file, or multiple INI files. Otherwise, you could use AfxGetApp()->m_pszProfileName and AfxGetApp()->GetProfileXXXX(…).

Class Declaration

class CIniFile : public CObject
{
public:
 CIniFile(LPCTSTR lpIniFileName, INT iMaxStringLength);
 virtual ~CIniFile();

// Attributes
protected:
 CString  m_strFileName; 	// path to the INI file
 const INT m_MAXSTRLEN; 	// max length of a string (excluding the key name)
                        	//that can be written/read to/from the
                        	// INI file by this instance

// Operations
public:
 CString GetIniFileName();
 void SetIniFileName(LPCTSTR lpIniFileName);
 BOOL GetStatus(CFileStatus& rStatus);

void GetString(LPCTSTR lpSection, LPCTSTR lpKey,
       CString& strRet, LPCTSTR strDefault);
UINT GetInt(LPCTSTR lpSection, LPCTSTR lpKey, INT iDefaultValue);
FLOAT GetFloat(LPCTSTR lpSection, LPCTSTR lpKey, FLOAT fDefaultValue);
BOOL GetStruct(LPCTSTR lpSection, LPCTSTR lpKey,
       LPVOID lpRetStruct, UINT iSizeStruct);
void GetSectionNames(CStringList& lstSectionNames);

BOOL WriteSection(LPCTSTR lpSection, LPCTSTR lpData);
BOOL WriteString(LPCTSTR lpSection, LPCTSTR lpKey, LPCTSTR lpString);
BOOL WriteNumber(LPCTSTR lpSection, LPCTSTR lpKey, INT iValue);
BOOL WriteNumber(LPCTSTR lpSection, LPCTSTR lpKey, FLOAT fValue);
BOOL WriteStruct(LPCTSTR lpSection, LPCTSTR lpKey,
       LPVOID lpStruct, UINT iSizeStruct);

 BOOL RemoveKey(LPCTSTR lpSection, LPCTSTR lpKey); 
};

Class Implementation

The implementation is very straightforward. It’s based on the following <stockticker>API functions:

• GetPrivateProfileSectionNames
• GetPrivateProfileStruct
• GetPrivateProfileString
• GetPrivateProfileInt
• WritePrivateProfileStruct
• WritePrivateProfileString
• WritePrivateProfileSection

Download the source code for details (it's fairly well commented).

Demo Application / Test Bed

Here’s the console application that exercises the methods of the class. The output goes to the afxDump.

// just a dummy structure to write/read to/from the INI file
struct TestStruct : public POINT
{
 char charr[8];
};

// PURPOSE: test bed for the INI file class
void TestIniClass()
{
 CIniFile iniFile(".\\test1.ini", 1024);
 iniFile.SetIniFileName(".\\test2.ini");     		// change the file name 
					 // after the class has bee created

// test the writing to the INI file
iniFile.WriteSection("section1", "key1=test1\x000key2=test2"); // make a section
                           // with 2 new keys
iniFile.WriteSection("section2", "key1=test1");    // make another section
iniFile.WriteString("section1", "key3", "test3");      // create a new key
iniFile.WriteString("section1", "key2", "test4");      // update an existing key
iniFile.WriteString("section1", "key1", NULL);     // remove an existing key
iniFile.RemoveKey("section1", "key3");             // remove another existing key
iniFile.WriteNumber("section1", "key4", 123);      // write an integer
                       // to a new key
iniFile.WriteNumber("section1", "key5", -123);     // write a negative integer
                       // to a new key
iniFile.WriteNumber("section1", "key6", -123.456f);    // write a float to a new key
TestStruct writeTestStruct;
writeTestStruct.x = 6;
writeTestStruct.y = 7;
strcpy(writeTestStruct.charr, "abcdefg");
iniFile.WriteStruct("section1", "key7", &writeTestStruct, sizeof(TestStruct));

// Test the reading from the INI file
CString str;           // string that will receive the output
iniFile.GetString("section1", "key2", str, "default"); TRACE("key2=%s\n", str);
iniFile.GetString("section1", "nokey", str, "default");
   TRACE("nokey=%s\n", str); // non-existent key
iniFile.GetString("section3", "key1", str, "default"); TRACE("nokey=%s\n", str);
TRACE("key4=%d\n", iniFile.GetInt("section1", "key4", 0));
TRACE("key5=%d\n", iniFile.GetInt("section1", "key5", 0));
TRACE("key6=%f\n", iniFile.GetFloat("section1", "key6", 0));
TestStruct readTestStruct;
iniFile.GetStruct("section1", "key7", &readTestStruct, sizeof(TestStruct));
TRACE("key7= %ld %ld %s\n", readTestStruct.x,
   readTestStruct.y, readTestStruct.charr);

 // Test the section list retrieval
 CStringList lstSectionNames;
 iniFile.GetSectionNames(lstSectionNames); 
 TRACE("Sections:\n");
 for (POSITION pos = lstSectionNames.GetHeadPosition(); pos != NULL; )
 {
  TRACE("\t%s\n", lstSectionNames.GetNext(pos));
 }
}

Is there anything that should be fixed, added or removed in this project? Please let me know!

References

[1] A Small Class to Read INI File

[2] INI Class for .NET

[3] CIni

Revision History