Reading strings in Binary file

[twotwobee]

Hi, I have a file (.bin) that is compressed with the following information:

Color Food Color Food Color Food ............... (until end of file)

For each string, it'd be 10 bytes long. So I'd read the first 10 bytes, it'd be color1, next 10 bytes, it'd be food1, next 10 bytes, would be color2.... etc.

How do I:

Process and read the binary file, and for each item read, throw into a structure of array

Public Structure AboutFoods
   Dim Color as String
   Dim Food as String
End Structure

So I'd have an array for Color, an array for Food?

Thanks ....

[Aaron Young]

You can read a file in blocks using the StreamReader class, i.e.

Public Sub ReadBinFile(ByVal filename As String)
      Dim colors As New ArrayList()
      Dim food As New ArrayList()
 
      ' Open the file for read as text
      Dim reader As IO.StreamReader = IO.File.OpenText(filename)
      ' Create a 10 character buffer
      Dim chars(9) As Char
      ' Read the next 10 characters from the file
      Do While reader.ReadBlock(chars, 0, 10) > 0
         ' the first 10 characters will be a color
         ' so add the string to the colors array
         colors.Add(String.Concat(chars).Trim())
         ' Read the next 10 characters from the file
         If reader.ReadBlock(chars, 0, 10) > 0 Then
            ' This block of characters should be
            ' a food, so add it to the food array
            food.Add(String.Concat(chars).Trim())
         End If
         ' Keep going until the whole file is read
      Loop
      ' Close the reader
      reader.Close()
 
      ' Do whatever with the lists here
      Console.WriteLine("Colors:")
      For Each color As String In colors
         Console.WriteLine(color)
      Next
      Console.WriteLine("Food:")
      For Each item As String In food
         Console.WriteLine(item)
      Next
   End Sub

Regards,

- Aaron.

[twotwobee]

Thanks Aaron....

But I want to also attempt in using this method other than streamreader class. Here's what I've been playing with....

Private Const OutPut As Integer = 1
 
Public Structure AboutFoods
   Dim Color as String
   Dim Food as String
End Structure
 
Private Sub Process(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ....
 
Dim strFoods As New String(" "c, 10)
 
FileOpen(1, foodfile.BIN, OpenMode.Binary, OpenAccess.Read, OpenShare.Shared)  'Open .BIN file
 
        Do While Not EOF(1)
            FileGet(1, strFoods)  'Read thru each 10 bytes
 
            '**How do you load Color and Food into AboutFoods.Color and
           'AboutFoods.Food, and be able to access each item in array... 
           'or should I read 20 bytes each time, and split each record 
           '10 bytes to get Color and Food?
 
        Loop
 
End Sub

And I'd want to be able to get # of records read in binary file, and each item in structure array.....

Thanks again...

[twotwobee]

Anyone? .......