Visual Basic

11-Dec-16 2:15

Hello,

so, i am a newbie, and i have this code for my .INI settings:

Module Module1
    Public Class IniFile

        Private Declare Ansi Function GetPrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32.dll" Alias "GetPrivateProfileStringA" _
            (ByVal lpApplicationName As String,
             ByVal lpKeyName As String,
             ByVal lpDefault As String,
             ByVal lpReturnedString As System.Text.StringBuilder,
             ByVal nSize As Integer,
             ByVal lpFileName As String) _
         As Integer

        Private Declare Ansi Function WritePrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32.dll" Alias "WritePrivateProfileStringA" _
            (ByVal lpApplicationName As String,
             ByVal lpKeyName As String,
             ByVal lpString As String,
             ByVal lpFileName As String) _
        As Integer

        Public Property Path As String

        Public Sub New(ByVal IniPath As String)
            _Path = IniPath
        End Sub

        Public Function ReadValue(ByVal section As String, ByVal key As String) As String
            Dim sb As New System.Text.StringBuilder(255)
            Dim i = GetPrivateProfileString(section, key, "", sb, 255, Path)
            Return sb.ToString()
        End Function

        Public Sub WriteValue(ByVal section As String, ByVal key As String, ByVal value As String)
            WritePrivateProfileString(section, key, value, Path)
        End Sub

    End Class


End Module

.. but this does not allows me to read multiline... it is writing multiline in the .INI file, but it is not reading!!

What do i need to change or do to read multiline of the .INI file?

TIA,
Duarte

modified 7-Jan-19 21:02pm.

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan11-Dec-16 2:50

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan

11-Dec-16 2:50

Can you show the response that it read, vs. the input that was given? I think you are reading entire content as text (instead of lines).

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User 989707411-Dec-16 5:21

11-Dec-16 5:21

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan wrote:
Can you show the response that it read, vs. the input that was given?

Well, i am inserting text like this in a multiline textbox:

test now

multiline etc...

And it is returning on read only the first line, in this case only the "test now" words!

modified 7-Jan-19 21:02pm.

Richard MacCutchan11-Dec-16 6:42

Richard MacCutchan

11-Dec-16 6:42

INI file elements are expected to each be on a single line. If you have large amounts of data then you need to think of an alternative method of storing it. Also these functions have been deprecated in favour of using the Registry.

User 989707411-Dec-16 7:15

11-Dec-16 7:15

ok... so what do you advise for storing text?!!
I am very newbie but i understand some snippets!!
Thanks!

modified 7-Jan-19 21:02pm.

Richard MacCutchan11-Dec-16 7:32

Richard MacCutchan

11-Dec-16 7:32

The first thing you need to answer is: what is this information used for, and how long do you need to store it? If it is just simple text that your program needs to process then use a text file or similar. INI files are really just for static key/value pairs that do not change often.

User 989707411-Dec-16 7:34

11-Dec-16 7:34

Yes i understand... i am currently trying a piece of code from MSDN to write a reaad from .txt!
Thanks : )

Duarte

modified 7-Jan-19 21:02pm.

User 989707412-Dec-16 0:28

12-Dec-16 0:28

Hi,

sorry to bother again but i need a bit more help!!!
Now i have this code to write and read from .txt files:

Sub readtext()
    Dim path As String = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()
    Dim fileReader As String
    fileReader = My.Computer.FileSystem.ReadAllText(path + Form1.TextBox1.Text + ".txt")
    Form1.TextBox2.Text = fileReader
End Sub
Sub writetext()
    Dim objStreamWriter As StreamWriter
    Dim path As String = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()
    objStreamWriter = New StreamWriter(path + Form1.TextBox1.Text + ".txt")
    objStreamWriter.WriteLine(Form2.TextBox2.Text)
    objStreamWriter.Close()

End Sub

... but when it tries to read from an unexisting file, it returns a code error.... my question is what can i do so that when i press a button that applies te "readtext" function, but the file does not exists, it shows a msgbox instead of returnning code error?

I hope i s clear enough!!!??

Thanks,
Duarte

modified 7-Jan-19 21:02pm.

Richard Deeming12-Dec-16 1:13

Richard Deeming

12-Dec-16 1:13

Try something like this:

VB.NET

Sub readtext()
    Dim folderPath As String = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()
    Dim filePath As String = Path.Combine(folderPath, Form1.TextBox1.Text + ".txt")
    If Not File.Exists(filePath) Then
        MessageBox.Show("File not found.")
        Return
    End If
    
    Try
        Dim fileContents As String = File.ReadAllText(filePath)
        Form1.TextBox2.Text = fileContents
    
    Catch ex As FileNotFoundException
        MessageBox.Show("File was deleted")
    
    Catch ex As IOException
        MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)
    End Try
End Sub

Sub writetext()
    Dim folderPath As String = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()
    Dim filePath As String = Path.Combine(folderPath, Form1.TextBox1.Text + ".txt")
    
    Using writer As StreamWriter = File.AppendText(filePath)
        writer.WriteLine(Form2.TextBox2.Text)
    End Using
End Sub

"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer

User 989707412-Dec-16 1:18

12-Dec-16 1:18

Thanks... i think i can drive it from here!! : )

Merry Xmas,
Duarte

modified 7-Jan-19 21:02pm.

User 989707412-Dec-16 6:40

12-Dec-16 6:40

Hi there,

just a bit more...please... i have this code to search for data in a .txt/.ini file but it is only returning the first line found!

Private Sub Button3_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button3.Click
     Dim folderPath As String = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()
     Dim filePath As String = Path.Combine(folderPath + ("Data1.ini"))
     TextBox7.Text = File.ReadAllLines(filePath).FirstOrDefault(Function(x) x.Contains("11/12/2016"))
 End Sub

My idea is to get all lines that contain the "date i want".....if possible without the .ini key name!!!

Help?!

modified 7-Jan-19 21:02pm.

Eddy Vluggen12-Dec-16 7:44

12-Dec-16 7:44

Let me repeat what has been said; INI files are deprecated. There is hardly any support for them in .NET, and there is no reason to prefer them over XML.

There's an error on below line;

Dim filePath As String = Path.Combine(folderPath + ("Data1.ini"))

You are concatenating two strings, and passing them to the Path.Combine method. That method gets one single string, and does nothing to it.

Below code lists all the occurences of a string in your textbox. With XML, you could simply select the required elements.

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
    Dim folderPath As String = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()
    Dim filePath As String = Path.Combine(folderPath, "TextFile1.txt") ' note, 2 arguments.
    TextBox1.Multiline = True
    TextBox1.Size = New Size(100, 100)
    TextBox1.Text = String.Join(Environment.NewLine, File.ReadAllLines(filePath).Where(Function(x) x.Contains("audio")))
End Sub

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User 989707412-Dec-16 8:31

12-Dec-16 8:31

ok thanks.. i am using a .ini file just to keep some dates and names...nothing big...

modified 7-Jan-19 21:02pm.

Eddy Vluggen12-Dec-16 8:44

12-Dec-16 8:44

You can do the same with XML, for which there IS support. Why use an outdated format?

It can't be the fact that you can easily edit INI-files in a text-editor, as XML files have the same option. It can't be due to the support, as there is none. It's a bad idea.

Rolling your own text-files and using a file-extension to your liking is even a better option.

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User 989707412-Dec-16 8:59

12-Dec-16 8:59

i am very newbie..if i change to XML i gotta ask you almost everything.. as i already made some code with .ini some years ago, i am more familiarized of how to work with it... : )

Thanks,
Duarte

modified 7-Jan-19 21:02pm.

Eddy Vluggen12-Dec-16 11:37

12-Dec-16 11:37

The problem is that the framework is not familiair with it, and that there is no "nice" way of getting those values or, like you may have noticed, have some strange characters in them (like a newline).

It ain't that hard to learn to read/write XML. No more problems with newlines or weird characters.

Bastard Programmer from Hell Suspicious | :suss:

If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

User 989707414-Dec-16 4:45

14-Dec-16 4:45

ok my code as changed..i googled for new code and i believe i found some that i can understand and is easy to apply.
The only problem is that is writing and reading only the first node.
How can i create new nodes and read only those that have the Date i want selected?
Please give me a hand here..this is not important as hell but i would like to be able to end my gadget... i believe i can do it with a few lines of code and is nothing really hard..but yes.. i am not understanding how to read and write more than one node...
here is my current code:

Private Sub Button5_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button5.Click
    Dim folderPath As String = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()
    Dim filePath As String = Path.Combine(folderPath, "MEMOS\Database.xml")
    Dim dat = TextBox1.Text
        Dim plc = TextBox2.Text
        Dim hed = TextBox3.Text
        Dim mem = TextBox4.Text
    Dim hor = ComboBox1.Text + " : " + ComboBox2.Text + " " + ComboBox3.Text
    Dim writer As New XmlTextWriter(filePath, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8)

    writer.WriteStartDocument(True)
        writer.Formatting = Formatting.Indented
        writer.Indentation = 2
    writer.WriteStartElement("MEMOSAVE")
    createNode(dat, hor, plc, hed, mem, writer)
    writer.WriteEndElement()
    writer.WriteEndDocument()
    writer.Close()
End Sub

Private Sub Button3_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button3.Click
    Dim folderPath As String = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()
    Dim filePath As String = Path.Combine(folderPath, "MEMOS\Database.xml")
    If Not File.Exists(filePath) Then
        MessageBox.Show("DataBase not found!")
    Else
        Dim sav = TextBox1.Text
        Dim xmlFile As XmlReader
        xmlFile = XmlReader.Create(filePath, New XmlReaderSettings())
        Dim ds As New DataSet
        Dim dv As DataView
        ds.ReadXml(xmlFile)
        dv = New DataView(ds.Tables(0))
        dv.Sort = "Date"
        Dim index As Integer = dv.Find(sav)

        If index = -1 Then
            MsgBox("Item Not Found")
        Else
            Label9.Text = (dv(index)("Date").ToString())
            Label10.Text = (dv(index)("Hour").ToString())
            Label11.Text = (dv(index)("Place").ToString())
            Label12.Text = (dv(index)("Header").ToString())
            TextBox4.Text = (dv(index)("MEMO").ToString())
        End If
        Return
    End If
End Sub

Thank you!

modified 7-Jan-19 21:02pm.

Eddy Vluggen14-Dec-16 6:17

14-Dec-16 6:17

Alienoiz wrote:
The only problem is that is writing and reading only the first node.

I only see one call to the "createNode" method. What happens if you call that method twice?

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<MEMOSAVE>
  <15/12/2016>  
    <Date>15/12/2016</Date>
    <Hour>01 : 05 PM</Hour>
    <Place>USA</Place>
    <Header>Testing Memo</Header>
    <MEMO>Memorando test text!</MEMO>
  </15/12/2016>
</MEMOSAVE>

Your fragment has an element with the name 15/12/2016, but element-names (the things between the < and >) aren't allowed to have slashes in them. You could name it "entry" though. You already have the date in the properties following that, so it would also be a bit redundant to specify it twice.

Alienoiz wrote:
i believe i can do it with a few lines of code and is nothing really hard..but yes..

You may need a bit more to handle multiple memo's.

I'd recommend creating a POCO, put those entries in a list, and XmlSerialize that. It looks more readable, and is easier to play with.

Imports System.IO
Imports System.Xml.Serialization

' defines how our stuff looks
Public Class MyMemoEntry
    Public CreatedOn As DateTime ' contains both date and time
    Public Location As String
    Public Header As String
    Public Memo As String
End Class

Public Class Form1

    Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        ' create a list to hold our stuff
        Dim Entries As New List(Of MyMemoEntry)

        ' create new stuff
        Dim newEntry As New MyMemoEntry
        newEntry.CreatedOn = DateTime.Now
        newEntry.Location = "Home, sweet home"
        newEntry.Header = "How to build a decent chicken-soup"
        newEntry.Memo = "Call Mom and say you want chicken-soup"

        ' add new stuff to list
        Entries.Add(newEntry)

        ' save list to XML; for that we need a serializer
        Dim serializer As New XmlSerializer(Entries.GetType(), "space")

        ' write it to a filestream using said serializer
        Using FileStream As New FileStream("output.xml", FileMode.Create)
            serializer.Serialize(FileStream, Entries)
        End Using

    End Sub

End Class

Which results in a file similar to below;

XML

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ArrayOfMyMemoEntry xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="space">
  <MyMemoEntry>
    <CreatedOn>2016-12-14T17:59:55.9937761+01:00</CreatedOn>
    <Location>Home, sweet home</Location>
    <Header>How to build a decent chicken-soup</Header>
    <Memo>Call Mom and say you want chicken-soup</Memo>
  </MyMemoEntry>
</ArrayOfMyMemoEntry>

That should be somewhat easier than writing the XML using a writer directly.

Also note that above saves a list of entries, not just one entry. You can fetch the CreatedOn property and get either the Date-part, the Time-part or both parts. Aw, and you don't have to use the "xml" file-extension when writing to a file, as long as you're using the right format.

Another nice thing about the above is that it is quite easy to replace the XmlSerializer with a JsonSerializer or the BinarySerializer. That way you are not limited or bound to XML.

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User 989707414-Dec-16 6:29

14-Dec-16 6:29

ok.. thanks.. i am going to explore this as i am.. i hope i can get this done : )

Thanks again!

modified 7-Jan-19 21:02pm.

User 989707414-Dec-16 6:43

14-Dec-16 6:43

something is wrong.. i am not still being able to create various "myMemoEntry" nodes.. i would like to support each dataset in different nodes and access it by "Date"...
i would like to write something like this:

XML

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ArrayOfMyMemoEntry xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="space">
  <MyMemoEntry>
    <CreatedOn>2016-12-14T17:59:55.9937761+01:00</CreatedOn>
    <Location>Home, sweet home</Location>
    <Header>How to build a decent chicken-soup</Header>
    <Memo>Call Mom and say you want chicken-soup</Memo>
  </MyMemoEntry>
  <MyMemoEntry1>
    <CreatedOn>2016-12-14T17:59:55.9937761+01:00</CreatedOn>
    <Location>Home</Location>
    <Header>chicken-soup</Header>
    <Memo>Call Mom</Memo>
  </MyMemoEntry1>
</ArrayOfMyMemoEntry>

: ) .. and then when i read, get all data inside the entry that has for eg: "2016-12-14"

:s

modified 7-Jan-19 21:02pm.

Eddy Vluggen14-Dec-16 7:08

14-Dec-16 7:08

That's not a valid* XML format; forget about how you want it to look, the format is simply there to provide structure to load and save from.

' create new stuff
Dim newEntry As New MyMemoEntry
newEntry.CreatedOn = DateTime.Now
newEntry.Location = "Home, sweet home"
newEntry.Header = "How to build a decent chicken-soup"
newEntry.Memo = "Call Mom and say you want chicken-soup"

Dim notherEntry As New MyMemoEntry
notherEntry.CreatedOn = DateTime.Now
notherEntry.Location = "Home, sweet home"
notherEntry.Header = "How to build a decent noodle-soup"
notherEntry.Memo = "Call Mom and say you want noodle-soup"

Dim testEntry As New MyMemoEntry
testEntry.CreatedOn = DateTime.Now.AddDays(-2)
testEntry.Location = "The restaurant at the end of the Universe"
testEntry.Header = "Eat more soup"
testEntry.Memo = "I forgot the reason"

' add new stuff to list
Entries.Add(newEntry)
Entries.Add(notherEntry)
Entries.Add(testEntry)

Gives you valid XML like below;

XML

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ArrayOfMyMemoEntry xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="space">
  <MyMemoEntry>
    <CreatedOn>2016-12-14T18:54:25.0337545+01:00</CreatedOn>
    <Location>Home, sweet home</Location>
    <Header>How to build a decent chicken-soup</Header>
    <Memo>Call Mom and say you want chicken-soup</Memo>
  </MyMemoEntry>
  <MyMemoEntry>
    <CreatedOn>2016-12-14T18:54:25.0337545+01:00</CreatedOn>
    <Location>Home, sweet home</Location>
    <Header>How to build a decent noodle-soup</Header>
    <Memo>Call Mom and say you want noodle-soup</Memo>
  </MyMemoEntry>
  <MyMemoEntry>
    <CreatedOn>2016-12-12T18:54:25.0337545+01:00</CreatedOn>
    <Location>The restaurant at the end of the Universe</Location>
    <Header>Eat more soup</Header>
    <Memo>I forgot the reason</Memo>
  </MyMemoEntry>
</ArrayOfMyMemoEntry>

..accessing the items in a list by date would not be hard either this way;

For Each item As MyMemoEntry In Entries _
    .Where(Function(ent As MyMemoEntry) As Boolean
               Return ent.CreatedOn.Date = DateTime.Today
           End Function)
    MessageBox.Show(item.Header)
Next

You can filter on any of the other fields in a similar way.

--edit
It is valid to confuse stuff more, as any XML-validator will tell you. It would also be abusing the format, as items representing the same thing are supposed to have the same element-name.

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User 989707414-Dec-16 7:29

14-Dec-16 7:29

ok thats very good.. i understand it...thank you..i just do not know (again) how to create the variables for MyMemoEntry!!
i mean .. you are using code to set new entries but i would like to make that based on a button click.

for eg. i click on the button and it creates:

Dim newEntry As New MyMemoEntry
       newEntry.CreatedOn = DateTime.Now
       newEntry.Location = "Home, sweet home"
       newEntry.Header = "How to build a decent chicken-soup"
       newEntry.Memo = "Call Mom and say you want chicken-soup"

then i choose some new data to enter in the memo and when i click the button again it creates:

Dim notherEntry As New MyMemoEntry
       notherEntry.CreatedOn = DateTime.Now
       notherEntry.Location = "Home, sweet home"
       notherEntry.Header = "How to build a decent noodle-soup"
       notherEntry.Memo = "Call Mom and say you want noodle-soup"

then i choose new data, click in the save button and it creates:

Dim testEntry As New MyMemoEntry
      testEntry.CreatedOn = DateTime.Now.AddDays(-2)
      testEntry.Location = "The restaurant at the end of the Universe"
      testEntry.Header = "Eat more soup"
      testEntry.Memo = "I forgot the reason"

and so on : ) ...

modified 7-Jan-19 21:02pm.

Eddy Vluggen14-Dec-16 10:46

14-Dec-16 10:46

If the property is a string, then you can assign the contents of a textbox to it. Like below;

testEntry.Header = textBoxHeader.Text
testEntry.Memo = textBox163.Text

For the DateTime, I'd recommend a picker, not a textbox.

Bastard Programmer from Hell Suspicious | :suss:

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User 989707415-Dec-16 0:36

15-Dec-16 0:36

i have it like that..but it is not creating new entries, everytime i insert new data in the textboxes it only overwrites previous data in the .xml

: \

modified 7-Jan-19 21:02pm.

User 989707415-Dec-16 0:38