How can I retrieve data from a specific place in text?

redacted

try this:

vb Code:

Public Class Form1
 
    Dim firstParts() As String
 
    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        IO.File.WriteAllLines("filename", New String() {String.Join("", New String() {firstParts(0), "=", TextBox1.Text}), String.Join("", New String() {firstParts(1), "=", TextBox2.Text})})
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Dim lines() As String = IO.File.ReadAllLines("filename")
        ReDim firstParts(lines.GetUpperBound(0))
        Dim parts() As String = lines(0).Split("="c)
        firstParts(0) = parts(0)
        TextBox1.Text = parts(1)
        parts = lines(1).Split("="c)
        firstParts(1) = parts(0)
        TextBox2.Text = parts(1)
    End Sub
 
End Class

If you have any control over the format of this file, I would suggest that you consider something like XML. After all, XML structures a text file with nodes and data associated with those nodes. Your description suggests that you don't want to be making random changes to the file, but to actually only change the values associated with certain tags. That's much more aligned with XML than pure text files.

redacted

vb Code:

Public Class Form1
 
    'array to store first parts of lines
    Dim firstParts() As String
 
    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        'save changes. WriteAllLines saves a string array, so i created a string array, + rejoined the lines 
        IO.File.WriteAllLines("filename", New String() {String.Join("", New String() {firstParts(0), "=", TextBox1.Text}), String.Join("", New String() {firstParts(1), "=", TextBox2.Text})})
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        'read the file into an array of strings, each element being 1 line of the file
        Dim lines() As String = IO.File.ReadAllLines("filename")
        'dimension the firstParts array
        ReDim firstParts(lines.GetUpperBound(0))
        'split the first line into 2 parts 
        Dim parts() As String = lines(0).Split("="c)
        'save the first part to the array
        firstParts(0) = parts(0)
        'put the second part in TextBox1
        TextBox1.Text = parts(1)
        'split the second line into 2 parts 
        parts = lines(1).Split("="c)
        'save the first part to the array
        firstParts(1) = parts(0)
        'put the second part in TextBox2
        TextBox2.Text = parts(1)
    End Sub
 
End Class

here's an xml example:

vb Code:

Public Class Form1
 
    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        Dim xml As XDocument = _
        <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
        <root>
        </root>
 
        xml...<root>(0).Add( _
        <people>
            <name><%= TextBox1.Text %></name>
            <age><%= TextBox2.Text %></age>
        </people>)
 
        xml.Save("test.xml")
 
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
 
        Dim xml As XDocument = Nothing
 
        If IO.File.Exists("test.xml") Then
            xml = XDocument.Load("test.xml")
 
            Dim info = (From node In xml...<people> _
                       Select New With { _
                       .name = node.<name>.Value, _
                       .age = node.<age>.Value}).ToArray
 
            TextBox1.Text = info(0).name
            TextBox2.Text = info(0).age
        End If
    End Sub
 
End Class

redacted

it creates an xml file like this when you click the button.

vb Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<root>
    <people>
        <name>Jim</name>
        <age>51</age>
    </people>
</root>

in the form_load event, it checks if the xml file exists, + reads it.

LINQ tutorial:

http://searchwindevelopment.techtarg...de-LINQ-to-XML

One thing I would add is that XML is particularly easy to work with if you are dealing with a datatable, since you can serialize the table to XML with a single line, and deserialize back from XML just as easily. Considering your sample data, I would expect that you probably have more than one person (or else there are even better alternatives than XML), so you are probably storing the information somewhere. If you are using a datatable, then XML is definitely going to be better.