Search for specific text in text document

[Shadow45o]

What I am doing is creating a simple login and register system. I am going to save the information of each user into a text or ".dat" format and have them placed into a folder called "accounts".

The small problem that I have is the "Forgot Password" option. I can't think of how to search all the documents for the e-mail or the username.

So basically I need to know if it is possible to do a small search for the e-mail through all the documents in the "accounts" folder.

**I know another option may be databases...but I don't completely know how to use these.
**I have general knowledge of arrays

Don't know what else to say, just need a general search function I guess ^_^

Thanks for the help

[ForumAccount]

You should be encrypting those files, but try this:

Public Function FindTextInDirectory(ByVal TextToFind As String, ByVal ParentFolder As String, ByVal SearchOption As IO.SearchOption) As String()
        If Not IO.Directory.Exists(ParentFolder) Then Throw New IO.FileNotFoundException(ParentFolder + " does not exist.")
        Try
            Dim Files As New List(Of String)
            For Each File As String In IO.Directory.GetFiles(ParentFolder, "*.dat", SearchOption)
                Try
                    For Each Line As String In IO.File.ReadAllLines(File)
                        If Line.ToUpper().Contains(TextToFind.ToUpper()) Then
                            Files.Add(File)
                        End If
                    Next
                Catch ex As Exception
                    Throw ex
                End Try
            Next
            Return files.ToArray()
        Catch ex As Exception
            Throw ex
        End Try
    End Function

You can use it like this:

For Each file As String In Me.FindTextInDirectory("[email protected]", "C:\Folder", IO.SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly)
            MessageBox.Show(file) ' path to file that contained text
        Next

[RhinoBull]

I am going to save the information of each user into a text or ".dat" format and have them placed into a folder called "accounts".

I wouldn't recommend that - better (and safer) way is to use database (and you are aware of it) that stores encrypted information.
Secured, convenient and no hassle search.