VB Forum / Win API / December 2006

I see a LOT of searching has been done!!!

(Hint - Use Google and also this is a VB group, NOT a vb.net group, try a
group with dotnet in its title)

hi TBoon,

An ini file is a text file, so you use ordinary vb
read/write statements.

There are a few examples of "class code" for dealing
with ini files, but generally speaking the format of
an ini file is so easy that you are probably better
off "rolling-yer-own".

If you are looking for api calls specifically oriented
to ini files, I don't know of any.

cheers, jw

This is all you may need.
I don't think you should read or write to .ini files with the normal file
I/O
as that can cause problems due to the Windows cache.

Option Explicit
Private Declare Function _
     GetPrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" Alias _
                             "GetPrivateProfileStringA" _
                             (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, _
                              ByVal lpKeyName As String, _
                              ByVal lpDefault As String, _
                              ByVal lpReturnedString As String, _
                              ByVal nSize As Long, _
                              ByVal lpFileName _
                              As String) As Long
Private Declare Function _
     WritePrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" Alias _
                               "WritePrivateProfileStringA" _
                               (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, _
                                ByVal lpKeyName As String, _
                                ByVal lpString As String, _
                                ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long

Function ReadINIValue(ByVal strINIPath As String, _
                     ByVal strSection As String, _
                     ByVal strKey As String) As String

  'will return <no value> if the header or the key is not there
  'will return <no file> if the .ini file is not there
  '------------------------------------------------------------
  Dim buf As String * 256
  Dim Length As Long

  If bFileExists(strINIPath) = False Then
     ReadINIValue = "<no file>"
     Exit Function
  End If

  Length = GetPrivateProfileString(strSection, _
                                   strKey, _
                                   "<no value>", _
                                   buf, _
                                   Len(buf), _
                                   strINIPath)

  ReadINIValue = Left$(buf, Length)

End Function

Sub DeleteIniKey(ByVal strINIPath As String, _
                ByVal strSection As String, _
                ByVal strKey As String)

  On Error Resume Next
  WritePrivateProfileString strSection, _
                            strKey, _
                            vbNullString, _
                            strINIPath
  On Error GoTo 0

End Sub

Function WriteIniValue(ByVal strINIPath As String, _
                      ByVal strSection As String, _
                      ByVal strKey As String, _
                      ByVal strValue As String) As Boolean

  If bFileExists(strINIPath) = False Then
     WriteIniValue = False
     Exit Function
  End If

  WritePrivateProfileString strSection, _
                            strKey, _
                            strValue, _
                            strINIPath

  WriteIniValue = True

End Function

Function bFileExists(ByVal strFile As String) As Boolean

  Dim lAttr As Long

  On Error Resume Next
  lAttr = GetAttr(strFile)
  bFileExists = (Err.Number = 0) And ((lAttr And vbDirectory) = 0)
  On Error GoTo 0

End Function

RBS