Reading/writing INI file in C#

Question

Is there any class in .Net framework that can read/write standard ini files:

[Section]
<keyname>=<value>
...

Delphi have TIniFile component and I am looking if there is anything similar for C#.

Answer 1

The creators of the .NET framework want you to use XML-based config files, rather than ini files. So no, there is no builtin mechanism for reading them.

There are third party solutions available though. Take a look at:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/cs_ini.aspx and
http://jachman.wordpress.com/2006/09/11/how-to-access-ini-files-in-c-net/

Answer 2

This article on CodeProject "An INI file handling class using C#" should help.

The author created a C# class "Ini" which exposes two functions from KERNEL32.dll. These functions are: WritePrivateProfileString and GetPrivateProfileString. You will need two namespaces: System.Runtime.InteropServices and System.Text.

Steps to use the Ini class

In your project namespace definition add

using INI;

Create a INIFile like this

INIFile ini = new INIFile("C:\\test.ini");

Use IniWriteValue to write a new value to a specific key in a section or use IniReadValue to read a value FROM a key in a specific Section.

Note: if you're beginning from scratch, you could read this MSDN article: How to: Add Application Configuration Files to C# Projects. It's a better way for configuring your application.

Answer 3

You can try Nini

Answer 4

You can use NIni lib.

Answer 5

There is an Ini Parser available in CommonLibrary.NET

This has various very convenient overloads for getting sections/values and is very light weight.

Answer 6

http://code.google.com/p/ini-parser/

is better more simple solution.