INI Praser

Hi,
I am new to standard libs of C.I used to program hardware where these libs dont come in any use.

I was trying to develop a simple ini praser.
My INI Syntax is simple:
[HEADER]
ITEM=VALUE
ITEM2=VALUE

I want a function that would return the VALUE of an item in he spefic section or header.

Somewhat lyk this
char * text = GetItemValue(char * FileName,char * section,char * item);

Thanks for ur consideration

The keywords to search for are ini, parser, and C.

If you want to write your own function, I'd pass a FILE * pointing to an opened stream rather than a char * pointing to a filename. Passing a pointer o a filename, you'd need to open (and close) the file everytime you call the function.

Also, I'd rather pass in the destination address rather than return a pointer to the result. The return value could then indicate success or some error ("section not exist", "key not exist", "value too long for destination length", ...)


Happy Coding!

Well the usual way to read a text file is (no error checks for brevity)

I find difficult to start using these libs.However, I will try developing the code and paste the code here if I go successful.

Thanks & Regards

If you're using Windows, why write your own when there is a function already provided by the Windows API to do this. See GetPrivateProfileString() for more details.

I am running windows but VC++ or so,I am using a Game Development SOftware having the language syntax as C and also few libs of C.

================================
I have come so far, but I have trouble.

char * GetItemValue(char * filename,char * section,char * item)
{
char value[1024];
char sectionstr[256];
char itemstr[256];
char tmp;
char * errormsg;
int i;
FILE * inifile;

if((inifile=fopen(filename,"r")) == NULL)
{
errormsg = str_cat(str_create("Failed to open "),str_create(filename));
WriteINILog("GetItemValue",errormsg);
return -1;
}
//File Found
goto find;
find:
while(!feof(inifile))
{
find_section:
if((getc(inifile)) == '[')
{
i = 0;
while(1)
{
tmp = getc(inifile);
if(tmp == ']')
{
if(str_cmp(section,sectionstr))
{
i = 0;
while(1)
{
tmp = getc(inifile);
if(tmp == '=')
{
if(str_cmp(item,itemstr))
{
WriteINILog("GetItemValue","Requested Item Found");
while(1)
{
i = 0;
tmp = getc(inifile);
if(tmp == ';') { return value; }
if(feof(inifile)) { WriteINILog("GetItemValue","End Of File while refering a value"); return -3; }
value[i] = tmp;
i++;
wait(1);
}
}
}
if(tmp == '[') { WriteINILog("GetItemValue","Item not found in the given section/Non-terminating Item"); return -2; }
if(feof(inifile)){ WriteINILog("GetItemValue","Item not found in the given section/Non-terminating Item"); return -2; }
itemstr[i] =tmp;
i++;
wait(1);
}
}
else
{
i = 0;
goto find_section;
}
}
if(tmp == '\n') { continue; }
if(feof(inifile)){ WriteINILog("GetItemValue","Section opened is never closed"); return -1; }
sectionstr[i] = tmp;
i++;
wait(1);
}

}
wait(1);
}
WriteINILog("GetItemValue","Required section not found or no Sections EXIST:End of File(EOF)");
}



My INI File
[TestSectionMain]
TestItem=12345;
TestItem2=12345;
[TestSection]
TestItem=123;

None of which precludes you from using GetPrivateProfileString(). Why do you think it does?

Either way, source code to do this is commonly available; why waste your time developing yet another? For example.