How to Read and Write Configuration Files using VBA

How to Read and Write INI files using VBA

Ini files were extensively used for storing configuration path. Of late this has been replaced with XML. Here is a small snippet for using

Here is a sample INI File

[MOSS_Documents]
AdminDocPath=d:\MOSS\AdminDocs\
ArchiveDocPath="d:\MOSS\DocsArchive\"


Declare Function GetPrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" Alias _
"GetPrivateProfileStringA" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, _
ByVal lpKeyName As Any, ByVal lpDefault As String, _
ByVal lpReturnedString As String, ByVal nSize As Long, _
ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long

Declare Function WritePrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" _
Alias "WritePrivateProfileStringA" _
(ByVal sSectionName As String, _
ByVal sKeyName As String, _
ByVal sString As String, _
ByVal sFileName As String) As Long

Private Function GetSectionEntry(ByVal strSectionName As String, ByVal strEntry As String, ByVal strIniPath As String) As String

'===================================================================================
'Purpose : Retrieve data from Sample.ini
'Assumptions:
'Effects :
'Inputs : Section Name and Entry Name in the KitBOM ini
'Returns : Value of the Entry in the section
'===================================================================================

Dim X As Long
Dim sSection As String, sEntry As String, sDefault As String
Dim sRetBuf As String, iLenBuf As Integer, sFileName As String
Dim sValue As String

On Error GoTo ErrGetSectionentry
sSection = strSectionName
sEntry = strEntry
sDefault = ""
sRetBuf = Strings.String$(256, 0) '256 null characters
iLenBuf = Len(sRetBuf$)
sFileName = strIniPath
X = GetPrivateProfileString(sSection, sEntry, _
"", sRetBuf, iLenBuf, sFileName)
sValue = Strings.Trim(Strings.Left$(sRetBuf, X))

If sValue <> "" Then
GetSectionEntry = sValue
Else
GetSectionEntry = vbNullChar
End If

ErrGetSectionentry:
If Err <> 0 Then
Err.Clear
Resume Next
End If

End Function

Here is the sub to drive the above function

Sub Store_And_Retrieve_Values()

Dim sIniPath
Dim sBuffer
Dim ret

sIniPath = "d:\temp\VBA_MOSS.ini"
sBuffer = GetSectionEntry("MOSS_Documents", "AdminDocPath", sIniPath)

' Write Data to Ini File
ret = WritePrivateProfileString("MOSS_Documents", "AdminDocPath", "d:\MOSSNew\AdminDocs\", sIniPath)
End Sub

The following will be the output INI file after running the macro

[MOSS_Documents]
AdminDocPath=d:\MOSSNew\AdminDocs\
ArchiveDocPath="d:\MOSS\DocsArchive\"

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