Best way to store 2-3 parameters per line, separated by commas.

Hello,

I'm working on a project, where I need to store 2 to 3 parameters per line, and reading them back out one line at a time.

Server1,Name,Path
Server2,Name,Path
Server3,Name,Path

Then, read these back out.

I'm doing it in XML now and having troubles, getting a specific value out and thought that csv file would be easier.

Thanks for your Help.

I believe xml is simpler if you use XmlSerialization. Consider where you need to store a list of servers. Since you specified Server1, Server2, and so on, let's make them indexed.

The xml schema may look something like this:

Code:

---

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<servers>
  <server index="1" name="nameofserver1" path="pathofserver1"/>
  <server index="2" name="nameofserver2" path="pathofserver2"/>
  <server index="3" name="nameofserver3" path="pathofserver3"/>
</servers>

---

Then we write a couple of classes to read/write the xml:

Code:

---

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace CG.XmlServerTest
{

    /// <summary>
    /// Wrapper class to read/write servers.xml (TODO: add write functionality(
    /// </summary>
    [Serializable]
    [XmlType(AnonymousType = true, Namespace = "")]
    [XmlRoot(ElementName = "servers", Namespace = "", IsNullable = false)]
    public class ServerMgr
    {
        public static ServerMgr Open(string xmlFile)
        {
            var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(ServerMgr));

            using (var reader = XmlReader.Create(xmlFile))
            {
                return (ServerMgr)serializer.Deserialize(reader, "");
            }

        }

        public ServerMgr()
        {
            _servers = new Dictionary<int, Server>();
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Retrieves a Server by index
        /// </summary>
        public Server this[int index]
        {
            get
            {
                return _servers[index];
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Adds a new server entry
        /// </summary>
        public void Add(string name, string path)
        {
            var newIndex = _servers.Count;
            _servers.Add(newIndex, new Server { Index = newIndex, Name = name, Path = path });
        }

        /// <remarks/>
        /// <remarks/>
        [XmlElement("server")]
        public Server[] Servers
        {
            get
            {
                return _servers.Values.ToArray();
            }
            set
            {
                if (value != null)
                {
                    foreach (var s in value)
                    {
                        _servers.Add(s.Index, s);
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        private Dictionary<int, Server> _servers = new Dictionary<int, Server>();
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Represents a single server
    /// </summary>
    public class Server
    {
        [XmlAttribute("index")]
        public int Index { get; set; }
        [XmlAttribute("name")]
        public string Name { get; set; }
        [XmlAttribute("path")]
        public string Path { get; set; }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            return String.Format("Index: {0,-10} Name: {1,-25} Path: {2}", Index, Name, Path);
        }
    }
}

---

Finally, we use the new classes:

Code:

---

using System;

namespace CG.XmlServerTest
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var serverMgr = ServerMgr.Open("servers.xml");

            foreach (var server in serverMgr.Servers)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(server);
            }
        }
    }
}

---

Output:

Code:

---

Index: 1          Name: nameofserver1            Path: pathofserver1
Index: 2          Name: nameofserver2            Path: pathofserver2
Index: 3          Name: nameofserver3            Path: pathofserver3

---