Getting a string from .ini file

Question

Getting a string from .ini file for login not working. Please don't suggest one of those phases or anything. Unless this won't work. B

char* pResult = new char[255];
GetPrivateProfileString("login", "uname", "", pResult, 255, "C:\\Program Files\\myfile\\login.ini");
if (pResult == "1"){
    g_pCVar->ConsoleColorPrintf(Color::Purple(),
        "----Login-Succesfull----\n");

}

else{
    g_pCVar->ConsoleColorPrintf(Color::Purple(),
        "----Login-Failed----\n");

}
delete[] pResult;

Here is the .ini file.

[login]
uname=1

Could someone please suggest what the issue is. Could it be because I am reading from programs files. I had an issue when I was reading from temp? Thanks.

Answer 1

if (pResult == "1")

This is wrong, here you compare the pointers, not the actual data pointed by those. You should use something like if (std::strcmp(pResult,"1") == 0) ( strcmp is case sensitive)

In windows there's also a _stricmp (case insensitive).

I remember back in the day I wrote a small helper like this one:

std::string get_profile_string(LPCSTR name, LPCSTR key, LPCSTR def, LPCSTR filename)
{
    char temp[1024];
    int result = GetPrivateProfileString(name, key, def, temp, sizeof(temp), filename);
    return std::string(temp, result);
}

If small string optimization is enabled, it will be used if result is small enough (so no memory allocation would happen). There's a limit of 1024 chars, which you can increase if you need of course.

The std::string class overloads the equal to == operator so this time if (pResult == "1") will actually work.

string result = get_profile_string("login", "uname", "", "C:\\Program Files\\myfile\\login.ini");

if (result == "1")
    g_pCVar->ConsoleColorPrintf(Color::Purple(), "----Login-Succesfull----\n");    
else
    g_pCVar->ConsoleColorPrintf(Color::Purple(),"----Login-Failed----\n");

But ideally, if you simply want an integer, then you shouldn't use GetPrivateProfileString at all. Instead, use GetPrivateProfileInt

int age = GetPrivateProfileInt("user", "age", 0, "C:\\Program Files\\myfile\\login.ini");

if (age >= 18)
{ }    
else
{ }