Read mutiple values from ini file into TCombobox

Question

I have an ini file which contains the following:

[Colours]
1 = Red
2 = Blue
3 = Green
4 = Yellow

In my app I have a TComboBox which I would like to populate with the colours in the ini file.

Does anyone know how I'd go about this?

Thanks,

Answer 1

You can get a list of names in a section by using TIniFile.ReadSection() and then iterate to get the values:

procedure TForm1.LoadFile(const AFilename: String);
var
  I: TIniFile;
  L: TStringList;
  X: Integer;
  N: String;
  V: String;
begin
  I:= TIniFile.Create(AFilename);
  try
    L:= TStringList.Create;
    try
      ComboBox1.Items.Clear;
      I.ReadSection('Colours', L);
      for X := 0 to L.Count-1 do begin
        N:= L[X]; //The Name
        V:= I.ReadString('Colours', N, ''); //The Value
        ComboBox1.Items.Add(V);
      end;
    finally
      L.Free;
    end;
  finally
    I.Free;
  end;
end;

As an alternative, you could also dump the name/value pairs within the section into a single TStringList and read each value using the string list's built-in capabilities...

procedure TForm1.LoadFile(const AFilename: String);
var
  I: TIniFile;
  L: TStringList;
  X: Integer;
  N: String;
  V: String;
begin
  I:= TIniFile.Create(AFilename);
  try
    L:= TStringList.Create;
    try
      ComboBox1.Items.Clear;
      I.ReadSectionValues('Colours', L);
      for X := 0 to L.Count-1 do begin
        N:= L.Names[X]; //The Name
        V:= L.Values[N]; //The Value
        ComboBox1.Items.Add(V);
      end;
    finally
      L.Free;
    end;
  finally
    I.Free;
  end;
end;

On a side-note, Ini files do not have spaces on either side of the = sign, unless of course you want that space as part of the actual name or value.