Read reg_binary as string using Tregistry Class in delphi - delphi

Question

I am trying to get the reg_binary as string from a registry key.
This is my function
function ReadBinString(key: string; AttrName: string): string;
var
ReadStr: TRegistry;
begin
// Result := '';
ReadStr := TRegistry.Create(KEY_WRITE OR KEY_WOW64_64KEY);
ReadStr.RootKey := HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE;
if ReadStr.OpenKey(key, true) then
begin
Result := ReadStr.GetDataAsString(AttrName);
end;
ReadStr.CloseKey;
ReadStr.Free;
end;
and here is my registry key Export :
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ZES\ACINFO]
"iamthere"=dword:00000001
"ArrayOrder"=hex:4d,79,45,78,63,6c,75,64,65
the problem is , the function returns empty string
I even tried running as administrator to make sure that it is not permissions.
Any help ?

Answer 1

Expanding on my comment to the question, I'd use code like so:
function ReadBinString(RootKey: HKEY; Access: LongWord; const KeyName,
ValueName: string; Encoding: TEncoding): string;
var
Registry: TRegistry;
Bytes: TBytes;
begin
Registry := TRegistry.Create(Access);
try
Registry.RootKey := RootKey;
if Registry.OpenKeyReadOnly(KeyName) then begin
SetLength(Bytes, Registry.GetDataSize(ValueName));
Registry.ReadBinaryData(ValueName, Pointer(Bytes)^, Length(Bytes));
Result := Encoding.GetString(Bytes);
end else begin
Result := '';
end;
finally
Registry.Free;
end;
end;
For your data you would call it like so:
Value := ReadBinString(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, KEY_WOW64_64KEY, 'Software\ZES\ACINFO',
'ArrayOrder', TEncoding.ANSI);
Notes:
I have avoided hard-coding the root key.
I have used TEncoding to decode the byte array to text. This is far more effective than GetDataAsString.
I have allowed the caller to specify the encoding to be used.
I have allowed the caller to specify the access flags.
I have used OpenKeyReadOnly because we do not require write access.

Answer 2

Thanks to David Heffernan I came with this solution:
function ReadBinString(key: string; AttrName: string): string;
var
ReadStr: TRegistry;
hexStr : string;
I : Integer;
begin
// Result := '';
ReadStr := TRegistry.Create(KEY_READ OR KEY_WOW64_64KEY);
ReadStr.RootKey := HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE;
if ReadStr.OpenKey(key, true) then
begin
hexStr := ReadStr.GetDataAsString(AttrName);
hexStr := hexStr.Replace(',','');
for I := 1 to length (hexStr) div 2 do
Result:= Result+Char(StrToInt('$'+Copy(hexStr,(I-1)*2+1,2)));
end;
ReadStr.CloseKey;
ReadStr.Free;
end;
Thanks to David Heffernan again ... this worked for me :
function ReadBinString(key: string; AttrName: string): string;
var
ReadStr: TRegistry;
hexStr: string;
I: Integer;
Bytes: TBytes;
Encoding: TEncoding;
begin
Encoding := TEncoding.ANSI;
Result := '';
ReadStr := TRegistry.Create(KEY_READ OR KEY_WOW64_64KEY);
ReadStr.RootKey := HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE;
try
if ReadStr.OpenKeyReadOnly(key ) then
begin
SetLength(Bytes, ReadStr.GetDataSize(AttrName));
ReadStr.ReadBinaryData(AttrName, Pointer(Bytes)^, Length(Bytes));
Result := Encoding.GetString(Bytes);
// hexStr := ReadStr.GetDataAsString(AttrName);
//
// hexStr := hexStr.Replace(',','');
// for I := 1 to length (hexStr) div 2 do
// Result:= Result+Char(StrToInt('$'+Copy(hexStr,(I-1)*2+1,2)));
end;
except
end;
ReadStr.CloseKey;
ReadStr.Free;
end;