Question

I am trying to create an app which has a predefined set of data(currently a text file) and it reads from it, now how should i implement the data storage such that when i share the app with someone else, i don’t have to pass the text file or any other data file(if possible, i can encrypt the contents and give it using a different extension) externally. I just want to give one exe file to the person and the data should be included inside the exe.
anyway to do it ??
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Include the text file as a resource.

You do not need to change the build (if you are using Visual Studio that is). Visual Studio will embed the resource/file and generate a readonly property for the file so you can access it directly from within your code:

string fileContent = YourResourceFile.TheEmbeddedFile;

You could split the fileConent per linebreak but the previous line will load the entire file into memory.

string[] lines = fileContent.Split(new string[] { Environment.NewLine }, StringSplitOptions.None);

If the file is too big to be read into memory at once, you could stream the resource as explained here.