An overly-specific question concerning INI's. *RESOLVED*

[Vanguard-MnC]

I have an INI file that stores a bunch of usernames and their scores in a game, like this:

[UserScores]
Vanguard[T]=61
Zmud=17
Reza@Azeroth=2
Wargamer=4
Son.Goten=5
JTSM=10
Elf[V]=24

...and sometime during the program is running, I need to know which user has the highest score. How do I go about doing this? I'll really appreciate it if someone would help me. Thanks.

[jemidiah]

You should be able to load it with the GetPrivateProfileString API and then you simply need to sort.

[Vanguard-MnC]

Yes, I kind of assumed that. But how would I do it?

[randem]

Vanguard-MnC,

If you want to cheat a little. Read each item and put it into a listbox with the sort property set to true.

Make sure that all number are at the front and are the same length with leading zeros.

[Vanguard-MnC]

Well, I still need the answer but I haven't gotten it yet. Could anybody help me out?

[randem]

Vanguard-MnC

I don't understand, why hasn't any of this helped?

[laserman]

This will start it for you

make sure your text file is in the same directory as your project

'Declarations section
 
Private Declare Function GetPrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetPrivateProfileStringA" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpKeyName As Any, ByVal lpDefault As String, ByVal lpReturnedString As String, ByVal nSize As Long, ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long
 
Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim Ret As String
    Dim NC As Long
    
    Ret = String(255, 0)
    'Retrieve the string
    NC = GetPrivateProfileString("UserScores", "Vanguard ", "", Ret, 255, App.Path & "\scores.txt")
    
   'NC is the number of characters copied to the buffer
    If NC <> 0 Then Ret = Left$(Ret, NC)
 
    
   List1.AddItem Ret
  
    End Sub

[laserman]

I have called the ini file scores.txt change this to score.ini or whatever your inifile is called in the code i have posted.

cheers

[randem]

Vanguard-MnC

What you want to do is to read the whole section not just the items. I assume you may not readily know the individual items, correct? Then you can separate them out and sort them. Here is some help from the people at AllAPI.

'Example by Robin ([email protected])
'Visit his site at [url]http://members.fortunecity.com/rbnwares1[/url]
Private Declare Function WritePrivateProfileSection Lib "kernel32" Alias "WritePrivateProfileSectionA" (ByVal lpAppName As String, ByVal lpString As String, ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long
Private Declare Function GetPrivateProfileSection Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetPrivateProfileSectionA" (ByVal lpAppName As String, ByVal lpReturnedString As String, ByVal nSize As Long, ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long
Private Sub Form_Load()
    ' We will create a new section in the INI-file
    ' It's output will be:
    '
    ' [SectionName]
    ' Key=Value
    '
    ' Note that used this ONLY if you are creating a new
    ' section on the INI file, unless you wanted to erase
    ' its existing keys.
    Call WritePrivateProfileSection("SectionName", "Key=Value", App.Path & "\sample.ini")
    Dim szBuf As String * 255
    Call GetPrivateProfileSection("SectionName", szBuf, 255, App.Path & "\sample.ini")
    MsgBox szBuf
End Sub

[MartinLiss]

Try this

Option Explicit
Private Declare Function GetPrivateProfileSection Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetPrivateProfileSectionA" (ByVal lpAppName As String, ByVal lpReturnedString As String, ByVal nSize As Long, ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
    
    Dim strBuf As String * 255
    Dim strScores() As String
    Dim strPlayer() As String
    Dim lngIndex As Long
    
    'Get the data in the section
    strBuf = String$(255, 0)
    Call GetPrivateProfileSection("UserScores", strBuf, 255, App.Path & "\test.ini")
    strBuf = Left$(strBuf, Len(strBuf))
    'Split it up
    strScores = Split(strBuf, vbNullChar)
    
    ' Load the scores into an invisible listbox
    For lngIndex = 1 To UBound(strScores)
        ' Split the score from the player name
        strPlayer = Split(strScores(lngIndex), "=")
        ' There are trailing nulls in the file, so ignore them
        If UBound(strPlayer) = 1 Then
            List1.AddItem Format$(strPlayer(1), "00000")
        End If
    Next
    
    MsgBox "Highest score is " & List1.List(List1.ListCount - 1)

[Vanguard-MnC]

Ah, thanks. I got it with Martin's code. I knew everything I needed to do except getting all the keys. Thanks again!

[Vanguard-MnC]

Hmm... I have another question. Sorry about that. If I wanted to get the user with the hightest score, how would I do that using Martin's code?

[MartinLiss]

Dim strBuf As String * 255
    Dim strScores() As String
    Dim strPlayer() As String
    Dim lngIndex As Long
    
    'Get the data in the section
    strBuf = String$(255, 0)
    Call GetPrivateProfileSection("UserScores", strBuf, 255, App.Path & "\test.ini")
    strBuf = Left$(strBuf, Len(strBuf))
    'Split it up
    strScores = Split(strBuf, vbNullChar)
    
    ' Load the scores into an invisible listbox
    For lngIndex = 1 To UBound(strScores)
        ' Split the score from the player name
        strPlayer = Split(strScores(lngIndex), "=")
        ' There are trailing nulls in the file, so ignore them
        If UBound(strPlayer) = 1 Then
            List1.AddItem Format$(strPlayer(1), "00000") & "::" & strPlayer(0)
        End If
    Next
    
    ' this reuses the strPlarer string
    strPlayer = Split(List1.List(List1.ListCount - 1), "::")
    MsgBox "Highest score is " & strPlayer(0) & " his name is " & strPlayer(1)

[Vanguard-MnC]

Ah, thanks. You're such a great guy.

[MartinLiss]

[Beengie]

I was wondering what...

String$(255, 0)

means

Also, is the 255 in the GetPrivateProfileSection function is the maximum size of the string to be returned?

I am having a hard time finding the answers to my ini queries

[randem]

Beengie

To make a string of 255 chr$(0).

[MartinLiss]

Originally posted by Beengie
...Also, is the 255 in the GetPrivateProfileSection function is the maximum size of the string to be returned?...

Yes, but you can make it larger.

[Beengie]

When it makes the string of 255 chr$(0) for strBuf, is that stating the valid characters to be returned from the ini?

and...

How is the array structured in strBuf after the GetPrivateProfileSection function is run?
I found in MSDN that it was a single dimension array
does that mean that it would be like this?

[SectionName]

Key1=1
Key2=2
Key3=3
Key4=4

strBuf(0)=Key1
strBuf(1)=1
strBuf(2)=Key2
strBuf(3)=2
strBuf(4)=Key3
strBuf(5)=3
strBuf(6)=Key4
strBuf(7)=4

[MartinLiss]

String$(255, 0) just defines a buffer to hold the data.

The data in the buffer can be cansidered a string with the data in the string separated by nulls (vbNullChar). If you want to see what the string looks like put a breakpoint on the strScores = Split(strBuf, vbNullChar) line in my code and look at strBuf.

[Beengie]

Thank you MartinLiss and randem