IniReadSection Speed

[hannes08]

Hi guys,

I need to read a lot of sections from a INI file to do some monitoring. So I used IniReadSection to get a 2-dim array for each section.

Now my thought is, If I have all the contents from that INI in an array there is no need to read the file from the HDD every time, I'm going to write a small function to replace IniReadSection().

Here is the code:

Func _NewInireadSec(ByRef $array, $name)
    Local $i, $j
    Dim $ret[1][2]
    $ret[0][0] = 0
    
    $i = _ArraySearch($array, "[" & $name & "]")
    
    If $i > 0 Then
        For $j = $i + 1 To UBound($array) - 1
            If StringLeft(StringStripWS($array[$j],1),1) = "[" And StringRight(StringStripWS($array[$j],2),1) = "]" Then Return SetError(0, 0, $ret)

            $ret[0][0] += 1
            ReDim $ret[$ret[0][0] + 1][2]
            
            $i_eq_pos = StringInStr($array[$j],"=")
            
            $ret[$ret[0][0]][0] = StringMid($array[$j],1,$i_eq_pos - 1)
            $ret[$ret[0][0]][1] = StringMid($array[$j],$i_eq_pos + 1)
        Next
    EndIf
    
    Return SetError(1, @error, -1)
EndFunc

Now what makes me wonder: this function is about 15 times slower that IniReadSection!

I know the AutoIt guys are really really good in what they do. But 15 times slower?

Any clues to speed up the function?

Regards,

Hannes

[GEOSoft]

Sure, write it properly in C++ and you will end up at about 10 times slower than IniReadSection().

You will NEVER make that method run nearly as fast as IniReadSection() for several reasons. Look at how many calls you are making to other functions (which have to be interpreted) and on top of that you are using a very slow function with ReDim and you are running it through a loop which will automaticlly induce a (very) tiny delay with each iteration.

[hannes08]

Hi GEOSoft,

I was pretty sure myself that this will NEVER be as fast as IniReadSection when I saw the result.

I was just curios about the reason why.

Now with that explanation we could mark this topic as solved.

Thanks, anyway!

Hannes