hi everybody,
    i have a vb application that i want to read its settings from a .INI file. i could already retrieve integer values from the file, but i am having trouble retrieving strings, could anyone help me, i really need it.

thanks:)

You can use the following function.

Private Function funcGetPrivateProfileString(ByVal sKey As String, ByVal sFile As String)
Open sFile For Input As #100
Dim sLine As String
Dim strKey As String
Dim strValue As String
Dim sRetValue As String
sRetValue = ""
Dim iPos As Integer
Do While Not EOF(100)
    Line Input #100, sLine
    iPos = InStr(1, sLine, "=")
    If iPos > 0 Then
        strKey = Mid(sLine, 1, iPos - 1)
        strValue = Mid(sLine, iPos + 1, Len(sLine))
        If strKey = sKey Then
            sRetValue = strValue
            Exit Do
        End If
    End If
Loop
Close #100
funcGetPrivateProfileString = sRetValue
End Function

Then you can call the function as below.

strTest = funcGetPrivateProfileString("<key>", "<path to ini file>/sample.ini")

Yea, you could do it that way, however there are several Windows API functions that will do it a lot quicker for you. They are GetPrivateProfileSection, GetPrivateProfileInt and GetPrivateProfileString. They are all relatively easy to use.

Regards
Owain Williams