Reading/writing an INI file

The creators of the .NET framework want you to use XML-based config files, rather than INI files. So no, there is no built-in mechanism for reading them.

There are third party solutions available, though.

• INI handlers can be obtained as NuGet packages, such as INI Parser.
• You can write your own INI handler, which is the old-school, laborious way. It gives you more control over the implementation, which you can use for bad or good. See e.g. an INI file handling class using C#, P/Invoke and Win32.

This article on CodeProject "An INI file handling class using C#" should help.

The author created a C# class "Ini" which exposes two functions from KERNEL32.dll. These functions are: WritePrivateProfileString and GetPrivateProfileString. You will need two namespaces: System.Runtime.InteropServices and System.Text.

Steps to use the Ini class

In your project namespace definition add

using INI;

Create a INIFile like this

INIFile ini = new INIFile("C:\\test.ini");

Use IniWriteValue to write a new value to a specific key in a section or use IniReadValue to read a value FROM a key in a specific Section.

Note: if you're beginning from scratch, you could read this MSDN article: How to: Add Application Configuration Files to C# Projects. It's a better way for configuring your application.

Usually, when you create applications using C# and the .NET framework, you will not use INI files. It is more common to store settings in an XML-based configuration file or in the registry. However, if your software shares settings with a legacy application it may be easier to use its configuration file, rather than duplicating the information elsewhere.

The .NET framework does not support the use of INI files directly. However, you can use Windows API functions with Platform Invocation Services (P/Invoke) to write to and read from the files. In this link we create a class that represents INI files and uses Windows API functions to manipulate them. Please go through the following link.

Reading and Writing INI Files

There is an Ini Parser available in CommonLibrary.NET

This has various very convenient overloads for getting sections/values and is very light weight.

Here is my own version, using regular expressions. This code assumes that each section name is unique - if however this is not true - it makes sense to replace Dictionary with List. This function supports .ini file commenting, starting from ';' character. Section starts normally [section], and key value pairs also comes normally "key = value". Same assumption as for sections - key name is unique.

/// <summary>
/// Loads .ini file into dictionary.
/// </summary>
public static Dictionary<String, Dictionary<String, String>> loadIni(String file)
{
    Dictionary<String, Dictionary<String, String>> d = new Dictionary<string, Dictionary<string, string>>();

    String ini = File.ReadAllText(file);

    // Remove comments, preserve linefeeds, if end-user needs to count line number.
    ini = Regex.Replace(ini, @"^\s*;.*$", "", RegexOptions.Multiline);

    // Pick up all lines from first section to another section
    foreach (Match m in Regex.Matches(ini, "(^|[\r\n])\\[([^\r\n]*)\\][\r\n]+(.*?)(\\[([^\r\n]*)\\][\r\n]+|$)", RegexOptions.Singleline))
    {
        String sectionName = m.Groups[2].Value;
        Dictionary<String, String> lines = new Dictionary<String, String>();

        // Pick up "key = value" kind of syntax.
        foreach (Match l in Regex.Matches(ini, @"^\s*(.*?)\s*=\s*(.*?)\s*$", RegexOptions.Multiline))
        {
            String key = l.Groups[1].Value;
            String value = l.Groups[2].Value;

            // Open up quotation if any.
            value = Regex.Replace(value, "^\"(.*)\"$", "$1");

            if (!lines.ContainsKey(key))
                lines[key] = value;
        }

        if (!d.ContainsKey(sectionName))
            d[sectionName] = lines;
    }

    return d;
}

If you don't need bells and whistles (ie sections) here's a one liner:

List<(string, string)> ini = File.ReadLines(filename)
  .Select(s => {
     var spl = s.Split('=', 2);
     return spl.Length == 2 ? (spl[0], spl[1]) : (s, "");
   })
   .Select(vt => (vt.Item1.Trim(), vt.Item2.Trim()))
   .Where(vt => vt.Item1 != "")
   .ToList();

To write:

File.WriteAllLines(filename, ini.Select(vt => $"{vt.Item1}={vt.Item2}"));

(if you don't care about duplicates use .ToDictionary() instead of .ToList() for easier access)

Here is my class, works like a charm :

public static class IniFileManager
{


    [DllImport("kernel32")]
    private static extern long WritePrivateProfileString(string section,
        string key, string val, string filePath);
    [DllImport("kernel32")]
    private static extern int GetPrivateProfileString(string section,
             string key, string def, StringBuilder retVal,
        int size, string filePath);
    [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    private static extern int GetPrivateProfileSection(string lpAppName,
             byte[] lpszReturnBuffer, int nSize, string lpFileName);


    /// <summary>
    /// Write Data to the INI File
    /// </summary>
    /// <PARAM name="Section"></PARAM>
    /// Section name
    /// <PARAM name="Key"></PARAM>
    /// Key Name
    /// <PARAM name="Value"></PARAM>
    /// Value Name
    public static void IniWriteValue(string sPath,string Section, string Key, string Value)
    {
        WritePrivateProfileString(Section, Key, Value, sPath);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Read Data Value From the Ini File
    /// </summary>
    /// <PARAM name="Section"></PARAM>
    /// <PARAM name="Key"></PARAM>
    /// <PARAM name="Path"></PARAM>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static string IniReadValue(string sPath,string Section, string Key)
    {
        StringBuilder temp = new StringBuilder(255);
        int i = GetPrivateProfileString(Section, Key, "", temp,
                                        255, sPath);
        return temp.ToString();

    }

}

The use is obviouse since its a static class, just call IniFileManager.IniWriteValue for readsing a section or IniFileManager.IniReadValue for reading a section.