delphi - Ini Files - Read Multi Lines?

Question

I am aware that Ini Files are meant for single lines of information, needless to say I am trying to read/write multi lines to and from the Ini - without much success (I always seem to do things the hard way!)

Lets say my Ini File when saved, looks like this:

[richardmarx] 
Filenames=hazard
children of the night
right here waiting

Suppose the Ini File is built dynamically (ie, the richardmarx and the Filenames are not know, but unique - they could literally be anything).

How would I be able to read the Ini File?

In this example then, how could I put richardmarx into a TEdit, and the Filenames associated with richardmarx section into a memo?

Many thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Do not store multi-line strings into an INI file to begin with. Escape the line breaks, like @RobertFrank suggested. I would not use an asterik for that, though, as that is a valid text character. I would use something like this instead:

[richardmarx] 
Filenames=hazard%nchildren of the night%nright here waiting

You can then read the string and replace the %n sequences with the value of the sLineBreak global variable. If you needed to store an actual % character, escape it as %%, eg:

[sales] 
value=Sale! 50%% off%nat Macy's