Question

I have in the options file two functions GetKey and SetKey.

I set a key then in the settings_file.txt it will look like:

text = hello where text is the key then = and hello is the value for the current key.

Now i need to add another two functions the first one is type of List that get a string and return a List

And a another function that get a Key and a List.

So this is the first two functions allready working GetKey and SetKey:

/*----------------------------------------------------------------
 * Module Name  : OptionsFile
 * Description  : Saves and retrievs application options
 * Author       : Danny
 * Date         : 10/02/2010
 * Revision     : 1.00
 * --------------------------------------------------------------*/

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;
using System.Configuration;


/*
 *  Introduction :
 * 
 *  This module helps in saving application options
 * 
 * 
 *  Typical file could look like this:
 *  user_color=Red
 *  time_left=30
 *  
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * */

namespace DannyGeneral
{
    class OptionsFile
    {
        /*----------------------------------------
         *   P R I V A T E     V A R I A B L E S 
         * ---------------------------------------*/


        /*---------------------------------
         *   P U B L I C   M E T H O D S 
         * -------------------------------*/
        string path_exe;
        string temp_settings_file;
        string temp_settings_dir;
        string Options_File;
        StreamWriter sw;
        StreamReader sr;

/*----------------------------------------------------------
 * Function     : OptionsFile
 * Description  : Constructor
 * Parameters   : file_name is the name of the file to use
 * Return       : none
 * --------------------------------------------------------*/
    public OptionsFile(string settings)
    {
        if (!File.Exists(settings))
        {
            if (!Directory.Exists(Path.GetDirectoryName(settings)))
            {
                Directory.CreateDirectory(Path.GetDirectoryName(settings));
            }
            File.Create(settings).Close();
        }
        path_exe = Path.GetDirectoryName(Application.LocalUserAppDataPath);
        Options_File = settings; 
    }

/*----------------------------------------------------------
 * Function     : GetKey
 * Description  : gets the value of the key.
 * Parameters   : key
 * Return       : value of the key if key exist, null if not exist
 * --------------------------------------------------------*/
    public string GetKey(string key)
    {

      //  string value_of_each_key;
        string key_of_each_line;
        string line;
        int index;
        string key_value;
        key_value = null;

        sr = new StreamReader(Options_File);
        while (null != (line = sr.ReadLine()))
        {


            index = line.IndexOf("=");


           //    value_of_each_key = line.Substring(index+1);



            if (index >= 1)
            {
                key_of_each_line = line.Substring(0, index);
                if (key_of_each_line == key)
                {
                    key_value = line.Substring(key.Length + 1);
                }

            }
            else
            {
            }


        }
        sr.Close();
        return key_value;
    }


/*----------------------------------------------------------
 * Function     : SetKey
 * Description  : sets a value to the specified key
 * Parameters   : key and a value
 * Return       : none
 * --------------------------------------------------------*/
    public void SetKey(string key , string value)
    {
        bool key_was_found_inside_the_loop;
        string value_of_each_key;
        string key_of_each_line ;
        string line;
        int index;
        key_was_found_inside_the_loop = false;

        temp_settings_file = "\\temp_settings_file.txt";
        temp_settings_dir = path_exe + @"\temp_settings";
        if (!Directory.Exists(temp_settings_dir))
        {
            Directory.CreateDirectory(temp_settings_dir);
        }

        sw = new StreamWriter(temp_settings_dir+temp_settings_file);
        sr = new StreamReader(Options_File);
        while (null != (line = sr.ReadLine()))
        {

            index = line.IndexOf("=");
            key_of_each_line = line.Substring(0, index);
            value_of_each_key = line.Substring( index + 1);
         //   key_value = line.Substring(0,value.Length);
            if (key_of_each_line == key)
            {
                sw.WriteLine(key + " = " + value);
                key_was_found_inside_the_loop = true;

            }
            else
            {
                sw.WriteLine(key_of_each_line+"="+value_of_each_key);
            }

        }

        if (!key_was_found_inside_the_loop)
        {
           sw.WriteLine(key + "=" + value);
        }
        sr.Close();
        sw.Close();
        File.Delete(Options_File);
        File.Move(temp_settings_dir + temp_settings_file, Options_File);
        return;

    }

After this two functions i did:

public List<float> GetListFloatKey(string keys)
    {
        int j;
        List<float> t;
        t = new List<float>();
        int i;
        for (i = 0; ; i++)
        {
            j = Convert.ToInt32(GetKey((keys + i).ToString()));
            if (j == 0)
            {
                break;
            }
            else
            {
                t.Add(j);
            }
        }
        if (t.Count == 0)
            return null;
        else
            return t;
    }

    public void SetListFloatKey(string key, List<float> Values)
    {
        int i;
        for (i = 0; i < Values.Count; i++)
        {
            string indexed_key;
            indexed_key = string.Format("{0}{1}", key, i);
            //  indexed_key = Key + i.ToString();
            SetKey(indexed_key, Values[i].ToString());
        }
    }

But they are not good.

The last one the SetListFloatKey when i put a List in it the result in the text file settings_file.txt is for exmaple:

coordinates01 = 123

coordinates02 = 144

coordinates03 = 145

For every cell/index in the List i get its making a key. What i need is that the List i get will have one key the format in the text file should be like this:

coordinates = 123,144,145……and so on one key and then all the values from the List i get.

Then in the GetListFloatKey i need re format the values according to the key for example coordinates and return a List with the values in index 0 123 in 1 144 in 2 145 and so on….

The qustion if the function the way im doing them are good in the way im using in both GetKey and SetKey ? And how do i format and re format the values ?

Answer 1

At the moment you are calling SetKey within SetListFloatKey for every item in the list. Instead, you need to build a string and call it once, along the lines of (basic testing done):

public static void SetListFloatKey(string key, List<float> Values)
{
  StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
  foreach (float value in Values)
  {
    sb.AppendFormat("{0},", value);
  }
  SetKey(key, sb.ToString());
}

Note I am getting lazy here – the last item will have a comma after it. Then when loading the list:

public static List<float> GetListFloatKey(string keys)
{
  List<float> result = new List<float>();
  string s = GetKey(keys);
  string[] items = s.Split(new char[] { ',' });
  float f;
  foreach (string item in items)
  {
    if (float.TryParse(item, out f))
      result.Add(f);
  }
  return result;
}

However, given you are reading and writing an options file, you might want to investigate options around serializing your objects to and from files.

EDIT There are a few ways you can get rid of the extra comma. One way is to not put it in in the first place…

  string sep = "";
  foreach (float value in Values)
  {
    sb.AppendFormat("{0}{1}", sep, value);
    if (sep == "") sep = ",";
  }

…and another is to exclude it in the call to SetKey…

  foreach (float value in Values)
  {
    sb.AppendFormat(",{0}", value);
  }
  SetKey(key, sb.ToString().Substring(1));

..note that in both of these cases I moved the comma to the start to make life easier. Alternatively, you could store the numbers in an array and use Array.Join.