Question

For an .ini file with property_value pair, I’d like to define the datatype for property_name such that I will convert the datatype based on the input argument data type .

For this reason I have been trying to read the specificed datatype from the ini file in struct format. However I am getting the error : invalid fieldname. How can I define property_name and datatype such that I’ll be able to read it, and also be able to write to the ini file if i’d like to add property_datatype_vlaue pair?

[system] % string
value
[application] % string
value

I also need tot be able to set this datatype from my input argument.

How to sort property -value pair in alphabetical order with Matlab

Answer 1

Modifying the struct from this answer to contain value and type

function fileData = readFileIntoStruct( fileName )
%
% read [property] value pairs file into struct
% 
fh = fopen( fileName, 'r' ); % read handle
line = fgetl( fh );
while ischar( line )
    % property
    tkn = regexp( line, '\[([^\]+)]\]\s*%\s*([^%]+)\s*$', 'once', 'tokens' );
    % read next line for value
    val = fgetl( fh );
    fileDate.(tkn{1}).val = val;
    fileDate.(tkn{1}).type = tkn{2};
    line = fgetl( fh ); % keep reading
end
fclose( fh ); % don't forget to close the file at the end.

Assumptions:

1. The properties’ names are legitimate Matlab field names (see variable naming for details).

2. The value of each property is always a string.

3. I did not include any error-checking code in these examples (files not found, wrongly formatted strings, etc.)

4. I assume the input file is strictly “[prop] val” pairs without any additional comments etc.