Question

I managed to write to and read a specific parameter from a .ini file.
I was wondering if there was a way to load the entire content of the .ini file and store it in a special class. That way, I only have to load the .ini file once. This way it should reduce the amount of loading that the game will do.

I know that in small games, it propably doesn’t matter, but I would still appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction.

Answer 1

Assuming the INI is a simple key / value pair split with new line could you use something like this to provide the entire INI file as either a dictionary or a strongly typed object.

the method allows you to load an ini file into an object like this.

class IniStructure
{
    public short Field1;
    public int Property1 { get; set; }
    public string Property2 { get; set; }
}

IniStructure ini = IniLoader.Load<IniStructure>(<fileName>);

or simply in to a dictionary with the non T method.

public static class IniLoader
    {
        public static T Load<T>(string fileName)
        {
            T results = (T)Activator.CreateInstance(typeof(T));

            PropertyInfo[] tProperties = typeof(T).GetProperties();
            FieldInfo[] tFields = typeof(T).GetFields();

            var iniFile = Load(fileName);

            foreach (var property in tProperties)
                if (iniFile.ContainsKey(property.Name))
                {
                    object s = System.Convert.ChangeType(iniFile[property.Name].ToString(), property.PropertyType);
                    property.SetValue(results, s, null);
                }
            foreach (var field in tFields)
                if (iniFile.ContainsKey(field.Name))
                {
                    object s = System.Convert.ChangeType(iniFile[field.Name].ToString(), field.FieldType);
                    field.SetValue(results, s);
                }

            return results;
        }

        public static Dictionary<string, object> Load(string fileName)
        {
            Dictionary<string, object> results = new Dictionary<string, object>();

            string fileText = File.ReadAllText(fileName);
            string[] fileLines = fileText.Split('\r');
            if (fileLines.Length > 0)
                for (int i = 0; i < fileLines.Length; i++)
                {
                    string line = fileLines[i].Trim();
                    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(line))
                    {
                        int equalsLocation = line.IndexOf('=');
                        if (equalsLocation > 0)
                        {
                            string key = line.Substring(0, equalsLocation).Trim();
                            string value = line.Substring(equalsLocation + 1, line.Length - equalsLocation - 1);

                            results.Add(key, value);
                        }
                    }
                }

            return results;
        }
    }