Efficient file content search method

[Zapeth]

Hello, I have a text file that contains about 1000 lines which each have a syntax like this:

keyname=value

Now I am searching for an efficient/fast method to get the value that is associated with the keyname.
It has to be quick because I want to read all the values of the keynames at once and store it in a list so I can use them afterwards.

I currently use the WinAPI function "GetPrivateProfileString" for this because its moreless exactly what I want.
But I guess this is only used for (small) initialization files and probably rather slow (compared to other search methods), I think its even stated so in MSDN.

I could also copy the whole file content in the memory but I still would need to store each value in a list and I am unsure how to do this (or rather what the best solution is).


I hope you can help me with this, preferably with example code so I know how to use it properly ;)

[clanmjc]

1.) Read the entire file by...
2.) 1 line at a time...
3.) if you need that lines value push it otherwise ignore it...
4.) Continue this until end of file

[Zapeth]

That actually didn't really answer my question but I figured it out now anyway. Thanks for the help though.

[clanmjc]

I'm not sure what your question is then, it seemed like you were steering away from reading in the entire file. I was merely suggesting that you didn't need to 'run away'. (Unless for some reason your file access happens synchronously after load and continually) I deal with all kinds of file types on a regular basis and I've never had to use an "efficient" file processing technique as of yet, I will say that everything that hits a DB or file happens in worker threads and not in the main though. In the real world 1000 lines of text is nothing, so I wouldn't do premature optimization, I would make it easily maintainable and readable.