How can I read "Keys" from a Config File that have square brackets in them?

Question

I'm using the "Read Key (String).vi" from the config.llb and I'm having a problem because the key names in my file have square brackets in them. I'm creating an VI to read certain pieces of the TestStand �StationGlobals.ini� file and array elements appear as %[0] = "blah blah blah". It looks like they're not getting recognized at all. Is there a way to handle this?

Answer 1

I was just looking at the code inside the configuration VIs and the way they work under V6 is that the Open VI actually reads the contents of the configuration file, parses it (in nice-platform independent G) and stores it in a fancy LV2-style global called the "Config Data Registry.vi". The routine that does the parsing is called "String to Config Data.vi". My gut reaction is that this code is going to be the same in your version because between sometime prior to V6 of LV, NI changed the location of a couple terminals on the low-level Match String function and it looks like when this code was originally written the terminals were in the old configuration.
In any case, if your square-bracket containing strings are getting lost, this is probib
ly where it's happening at. The other place to check is in the read VI itself. The V6 VI for reading the configuration registry is called "Config Data Get Key Value.vi". It's output is then further parsed by a function called "Parse Store String.vi" if the "read raw string?" input is set to False (the default position).
Given that all the code for these functions are written in LV, you should be able to fix your VIs to read the strings you have in the ini file now. Which IMHO is actually the way they should work.
Mike...
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