Read mutiple values from ini file into TCombobox - delphi

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.

Answer 2

try this, without reading the file twice:
uses IniFiles;
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
lIni : TIniFile;
i: Integer;
begin
lIni := TIniFile.Create('c:\MyFile.ini');
try
lIni.ReadSectionValues('Colours', ComboBox1.Items);
for i := 0 to ComboBox1.Items.Count - 1 do
ComboBox1.Items[i] := ComboBox1.Items.ValueFromIndex[i];
finally
FreeAndNil(lIni);
end;
end;