help Make settings.in ...

Option Strict On
Module INIAccess

#Region "API Calls"
' standard API declarations for INI access
' changing only "As Long" to "As Int32" (As Integer would work also)
Private Declare Unicode Function WritePrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" _
Alias "WritePrivateProfileStringW" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, _
ByVal lpKeyName As String, ByVal lpString As String, _
ByVal lpFileName As String) As Int32

Private Declare Unicode Function GetPrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" _
Alias "GetPrivateProfileStringW" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, _
ByVal lpKeyName As String, ByVal lpDefault As String, _
ByVal lpReturnedString As String, ByVal nSize As Int32, _
ByVal lpFileName As String) As Int32
#End Region

Public Overloads Function INIRead(ByVal INIPath As String, _
ByVal SectionName As String, ByVal KeyName As String, _
ByVal DefaultValue As String) As String
' primary version of call gets single value given all parameters
Dim n As Int32
Dim sData As String
sData = space$(1024) ' allocate some room 
n = GetPrivateProfileString(SectionName, KeyName, DefaultValue, _
sData, sData.Length, INIPath)
If n > 0 Then ' return whatever it gave us
INIRead = sdata.Substring(0, n)
Else
iniread = ""
End If
End Function

#Region "INIRead Overloads"
Public Overloads Function INIRead(ByVal INIPath As String, _
ByVal SectionName As String, ByVal KeyName As String) As String
' overload 1 assumes zero-length default
Return INIRead(inipath, sectionname, KeyName, "")
End Function

Public Overloads Function INIRead(ByVal INIPath As String, _
ByVal SectionName As String) As String
' overload 2 returns all keys in a given section of the given file
Return INIRead(inipath, sectionname, Nothing, "")
End Function

Public Overloads Function INIRead(ByVal INIPath As String) As String
' overload 3 returns all section names given just path
Return INIRead(inipath, Nothing, Nothing, "")
End Function
#End Region

Public Sub INIWrite(ByVal INIPath As String, ByVal SectionName As String, _
ByVal KeyName As String, ByVal TheValue As String)
Call WritePrivateProfileString(SectionName, KeyName, TheValue, INIPath)
End Sub

Public Overloads Sub INIDelete(ByVal INIPath As String, ByVal SectionName As String, _
ByVal KeyName As String) ' delete single line from section
Call WritePrivateProfileString(SectionName, KeyName, Nothing, INIPath)
End Sub

Public Overloads Sub INIDelete(ByVal INIPath As String, ByVal SectionName As String)
' delete section from INI file
Call WritePrivateProfileString(SectionName, Nothing, Nothing, INIPath)
End Sub

End Module

Dim sValue As String
Dim sPath As String
sPath = "testing.ini"

INIWrite(sPath, "Section1", "Key1-1", "Value1-1") ' build INI file
INIWrite(sPath, "Section1", "Key1-2", "Value1-2")
INIWrite(sPath, "Section1", "Key1-3", "Value1-3")
INIWrite(sPath, "Section2", "Key2-1", "Value2-1")
INIWrite(sPath, "Section2", "Key2-2", "Value2-2")

sValue = INIRead(sPath, "section2", "key2-1", "Unknown") ' specify all
MessageBox.Show(sValue, "section2/key2-1/unknown", MessageBoxButtons.OK)

sValue = INIRead(sPath, "section2", "XYZ", "Unknown") ' specify all
MessageBox.Show(sValue, "section2/xyz/unknown", MessageBoxButtons.OK)

sValue = INIRead(sPath, "section2", "XYZ") ' use zero-length string as default
MessageBox.Show(sValue, "section2/XYZ", MessageBoxButtons.OK)

sValue = INIRead(sPath, "section1") ' get all keys in section
sValue = sValue.Replace(ControlChars.NullChar, "|"c) ' change embedded NULLs to pipe chars
MessageBox.Show(sValue, "section1 pre delete", MessageBoxButtons.OK)

INIDelete(sPath, "section1", "key1-2") ' delete middle entry in section 1
sValue = INIRead(sPath, "section1") ' get all keys in section again
sValue = sValue.Replace(ControlChars.NullChar, "|"c) ' change embedded NULLs to pipe chars
MessageBox.Show(sValue, "section1 post delete", MessageBoxButtons.OK)

sValue = INIRead(sPath) ' get all section names
sValue = sValue.Replace(ControlChars.NullChar, "|"c) ' change embedded NULLs to pipe chars
MessageBox.Show(sValue, "All sections pre delete", MessageBoxButtons.OK)

INIDelete(sPath, "section1") ' delete section
sValue = INIRead(sPath) ' get all section names
sValue = sValue.Replace(ControlChars.NullChar, "|"c) ' change embedded NULLs to pipe chars
MessageBox.Show(sValue, "All sections post delete", MessageBoxButtons.OK)