This post was imported from an old blog archive, and predates the creation of AdamCaudill.com.
While storing settings in a INI file is no longer in vogue, so developers (including myself) still find value in this old method of save a program’s settings. The advantages of using INI files instead of the system registry may be numerous, one of the main reasons I use it is portability, by saving a single file I can move the entire settings for my program to any other computer.
My games also use INI files instead of using the registry, this allows them to perform their own user management instead of allow Windows to define how to handle it.
Option Explicit
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
Declare Function WritePrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" Alias "WritePrivateProfileStringA" ( _
ByVal AppName As String, _
ByVal KeyName As String, _
ByVal keydefault As String, _
ByVal FileName As String _
) As Long
Function INIGetKeyVal(ByVal strFileName As String, ByVal strSection As String, ByVal strKey As String) As String
Dim strRetData As String
Dim lngRetVal As Long
If Dir$(strFileName) <> "" Then
strRetData = String$(255, 0)
lngRetVal = GetPrivateProfileString(strSection, strKey, "", strRetData, Len(RetVal), strFileName)
If lngRetVal > 0 Then
INIGetKeyVal = Left$(strRetData, InStr(strRetData, Chr$(0)) - 1)
End If
End If
End Function
Function INISetKeyVal(ByVal strFileName As String, ByVal strSection As String, ByVal strKey As String, ByVal strValue As String) As Boolean
Dim lngRetVal As Long
lngRetVal = WritePrivateProfileString(strSection, strKey, strValue, strFileName)
INISetKeyVal = (lngRetVal <> 0)
End Function
