Reading and Writing from a txt file?

Question

I am creating a game with c# and i have occurred a problem. I want my game to save curtain labels to a txt file here ill give you a example:

Label1.Text = "Character Name: "
Label2.Text = "Level: "
Label3.Text = "Exp: "

Now what i wanted to do was to retrieve "Character Name: [Name]" From a txt file? But i also wanted to save the name to a txt file when you exit the game. so here might be a better example:

I want to retrieve Level: [LVL] From a txt file and when the gamer has finished and exit my game i want it to overwrite the existing line that was there with there new level?

I think I need to use StringReader or StringWriter.

For really simple I/O, try using the `System.IO.File` class ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.file.aspx ), especially its `ReadAllText` and `WriteAllText` methods. Once you got that down, you can maybe look at doing things differently or at least move on to tracking when to read/write and how to reload the game. Just be sure to abstract the saving/loading to a separate portion of your program so you can change it willy nilly as need be. — Chris Sinclair, Jan 03 '13 at 02:54
I've removed all sort of "thankyou notes"/"don't know how to use samples" from the question... Please add instead code that you can't get working. Side note: consider Xml as it may be easier to read structured data from. — Alexei Levenkov, Jan 03 '13 at 02:59
thanks ill give it a go i just need a code to read off like an example code i have looked around but i can't find one because i'm blind when writing off codes and i only have 6 months to get this game up and running before my child is born :/ — Terrii, Jan 03 '13 at 03:01
Or you can simply serialize everything on closing, and deserialize them on opening http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4abbf6k0.aspx — Martheen, Jan 03 '13 at 03:02

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 03 '13 at 03:27

Here's a quick sample using XML serialization with a data model. Make sure you have a using System.Xml.Serialization; namespace import line at the top of your file.

Declare the data you wish to save/load as a simple class, for example:

public class SaveData
{
    public string CharacterName { get; set; }
    public int Level { get; set; }
    public int Experience { get; set; }
}

When you want to save, build that data model:

SaveData saveState = new SaveData()
{
    CharacterName = myCharacter.Name,
    Level = myCharacter.Level,
    Experience = myCharacter.Experience
};

To save to a file, use the XmlSerializer class and open a stream to a file to serialize it to:

public void SaveStateToFile(SaveData state)
{
    XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(SaveData));
    using (TextWriter writeFileStream = new StreamWriter(@"C:\savefile.xml"))
    {
        serializer.Serialize(writeFileStream, state);
    }
}

That will create an xml file with the following content for example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<SaveData xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <CharacterName>John</CharacterName>
  <Level>10</Level>
  <Experience>9001</Experience>
</SaveData>

So that should be pretty easy to edit if needed. To load the data back:

public SaveData LoadStateFromFile()
{
    XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(SaveData));
    using (FileStream readFileStream = new FileStream(@"C:\savefile.xml", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read))
    {
        return (SaveData)serializer.Deserialize(readFileStream);
    }
}

That should give you a nice type-safe data model to then rebind your GUI as desired:

SaveData loadedData = LoadStateFromFile();
Console.WriteLine(loadedData.CharacterName); //John
Console.WriteLine(loadedData.Level); //10
Console.WriteLine(loadedData.Experience); //9001

Label1.Text = "Character Name: " + loadedData.CharacterName;
Label2.Text = "Level: " + loadedData.Level;
Label3.Text = "Exp: " + loadedData.Experience;

Wow thank you so so much this is exactly what i needed! you are amazing! if i could do anything else to give you some kind of credit on this website i would, in my game i will gladly put your name and link down, thank you! — Terrii, Jan 03 '13 at 03:41
It has a error is can't find myCharacter.Name, Level = myCharacter.Level or myCharacter.Experience — Terrii, Jan 03 '13 at 03:44
@Terrii Place there wherever you're storing that data in general. I'm assuming you have some character object somewhere that's storing those properties. — Chris Sinclair, Jan 03 '13 at 04:18
nope, you create your own character and then it sends you to a new form the main windows then on startup it loads the username you picked and then your lvl = 0 and then your experience = 0 then when you exit i wanted to save that data to an xml file i don't have a character file. — Terrii, Jan 03 '13 at 04:23
the xml was going to be there savefile so there character file — Terrii, Jan 03 '13 at 04:24
@Terrii No, I'm saying that _somewhere_ in your game you have these variables indicating the username, the level, and experience. So when you level up, _somewhere_ in your game you increment that `level` or increase that `experience`. Those properties you should use for building the `SaveData` data model. — Chris Sinclair, Jan 03 '13 at 11:39

horgh · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-03T03:31:05.650

1

You may try to use XML for the settings file. Here is a very simple example:

Create a new XML file, fill it with the character name and save:

XElement x = new XElement("Settings");
x.Add(new XElement("CharacterName", "John Doe"));
x.Save("1.xml");

Load the saved xml and print the output:

XElement loaded = XElement.Load("1.xml");
Console.WriteLine(loaded.Element("CharacterName").Value);

Here is an MSDN article to start with:LINQ to XML

If .NetFramework 3.5 and higher is not available, you may use classes from System.Xml namespace. See

...just google with C# xmldocument.

edited Jan 03 '13 at 03:31

answered Jan 03 '13 at 03:03

horgh

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I just tryed that and i'm using windows forms sorry i forgot to describe and i'm using .net frameworks 3 and it can't find XElement – Terrii Jan 03 '13 at 03:08
I used console application only for an example. It makes no difference indeed. LINQ minimum framework requirement is 3.5. However you may use [XmlDocument Class](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmldocument.aspx) with .NetFramework 3 – horgh Jan 03 '13 at 03:23
I just read them and it works thank you very much :) i used this source http://csharp.net-tutorials.com/xml/writing-xml-with-the-xmldocument-class/ – Terrii Jan 03 '13 at 11:21
@Terrii glad, it helped you. – horgh Jan 03 '13 at 14:29

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 03 '13 at 02:56

0

You can try SQLite. It's database that save in text file. You will have capability to organize your data better than using your own plain text.

answered Jan 03 '13 at 02:56

Paiboon Panusbordee

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That is overkill to save game settings. – Steve Wellens Jan 03 '13 at 02:57

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 03 '13 at 03:18

Another option is to use old INI files. Here is a great An INI file handling class using C# example that will help you to deal with that. Here is an example of using it:

Create a INIFile like this

INIFile ini = new INIFile("C:\\test.ini");

Use IniWriteValue to write a new value to a specific key in a section or use IniReadValue to read a value FROM a key in a specific Section.

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 03 '13 at 11:20

This is the code i ended up using and it works fine:

XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
XmlNode rootNode = xmlDoc.CreateElement("Info");
xmlDoc.AppendChild(rootNode);

XmlNode userNode = xmlDoc.CreateElement("Username");
userNode.InnerText = Username.Text;
rootNode.AppendChild(userNode);

xmlDoc.Save(gameFolder + Username.Text + ".sav");

I used the sources from @Konstantin Vasilcov

Reading and Writing from a txt file?

5 Answers5