File reading code - beyond help.

I've been trying to write some code to read a file in this sort of format

Code:

#comment blah blah

[catagory]
variable=value

[another catagory]
variable=value
variable=value

But I got lost and ended up with this useless piece of ****:

Code:

#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <ctype.h>

#define TEST_FILE "test.dat"


int caseConvert(char *str)
{
    char a;
	while(*str)
	{
		*str=tolower(*str);
		*str++;
	}
	return 0;
}

int firstword(char *inputstring, char *output)
{
	int i = 0;
	int j = 0;
	int k = 0;
	while(*inputstring != '=')
	{
		i++;
		*output = *inputstring;
		*output++;
		*inputstring++;
	}
	return i + 1;
}

int getEntry(char *section,char *entryname, char *filename)
{
	FILE *datafile = fopen(filename,"r");
	int flag = 0;
	char line[100];
	char secname[BUFSIZ];
	char currentword[BUFSIZ];
	char thingy[BUFSIZ];
	caseConvert(section);
	caseConvert(entryname);
	int i = 0;
	int j = 0;
	int k = 0;

	int returnNumber=0;

	if(!datafile)
	{
		return -1;
	}

	while(fgets(line, 100, datafile)!=NULL && flag != 1)
	{
		j = firstword(line, currentword);
     	if(line[0] == '#') continue;
	 	else if(line[0] == '[')
	 	{
		 	do
		 	{
			 	i++;
			 	secname[i-1] = line[i];
		 	}
		 	while(line[i+1] != ']');
		}
		else if(strcmp(currentword,entryname) && strcmp(section,secname))
		{
			printf("%c",line[j]);
			while(line[j])
			{
				thingy[k] = line[j];
				j++;
				k++;
			}
		}
	}
	return 0;
}


int main(void)
{
	int i = 0;
	i = getEntry("other","percent", TEST_FILE);
	printf("%d",i);
	return 0;
}

If anyone could fix my hopeless code, I'd be very greatful

here's the file it needs to read:

Code:

#test.dat
[other]
percent=1

#'s are ignored lines

I'd use 'fgets' and read a line at a time into a buffer, then check the first character of the line to see what to do with it. A 'switch' would do good here.

Quzah.

Here is something to try. Hope you don't mind the rewrite, but there were too many errors with the old code. Let me know how it works. You might need to modify it slightly, as I wasn't sure exactly how it might be used.

Code:

#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <ctype.h>

#define TEST_FILE "test.dat"


int caseConvert(char *str)
{
	while(*str)
	{
		*str=tolower(*str);
		str++;
	}
	return 0;
}


int getEntry(char *section,char *entryname, char *filename)
{
#define LINE_SIZE 100
#define FIND_ENTRY 1
#define FIND_SECTION 2
#define	TRUE 1
#define FALSE !TRUE

	FILE *datafile;
	char line[LINE_SIZE];
	char secname[BUFSIZ];
	char curentry[BUFSIZ];
	int action;
	int done = FALSE;
	int i = 0;
	int retval = 0;


	if((datafile = fopen(filename,"r")) != NULL)
	{
		action = FIND_SECTION;

		while(fgets(line, LINE_SIZE, datafile)!=NULL && !done)
		{
			if(line[0] != '#' && line[0] != '\n') 
			{
				switch(action)
				{
				case FIND_SECTION:			
     	 			if(line[0] == '[')
	 				{
		 				do
		 				{
			 				i++;
			 				secname[i-1] = line[i];
		 				}
		 				while(line[i+1] != ']');

						secname[i] = '\0';

						caseConvert(secname);

						if (!strcmp(section, secname))
						{
							printf("found the correct section: %s\n", secname);
							action = FIND_ENTRY;
						}
					}
					break;

				case FIND_ENTRY:
					// start reading the entries here
					
					i = 0;

					if (line[i] == '[') // if we read this character, we are at a different section
						done = TRUE;
					else
					{
						while (line[i] != '=' && line[i])
		 				{
			 				curentry[i] = line[i];
							i++;
		 				}
		 				curentry[i] = '\0';	
						
						caseConvert(curentry);

						printf("%s\n", curentry);
					}
					break;
				}
			}
		}
	}
	else
		retval = -1;

	return (retval);
}


int main(void)
{
	int i = 0;
	char section[21] = "other";
	char entryname[21] = "percent";

	i = getEntry(section,entryname, TEST_FILE);
	printf("%d",i);
	return 0;
}

thanks that works
as long as the first section is the section you're looking for.

I'm trying to fix that but it's not going too well.