saving arrays to dat

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hey all :)
I need advice, I have been looking at several ways to save arrays of records to a file and I was wondering whats the best way.
I need to save several arrays of records ( static & dynamic), and the hard part is that dynamic arrays can have varying lengths,
and most of them will exceed 255 characters. Which means I cant use "file of TRecord" to save the records. And I want to
save all my array records (6-8 of them) to one file.

Now I have looked into TFileStream and writing the individual records out manually. And its ok, but tedious.
And TStringLists, which I can use... but how do I save them out in a non text format? I dont want users to be able to
read (or change) anything in the file. Anyway to change that?

thanx for your time...

hello LMuadDIb, , I have used the delphi TFileStream, many, many times to save all kinds of data into a file, if you have an array of records, you can for loop through the array and write each record to the TFileStream, but you will need to store the "Length" of the array as a file data segment, so you can read the file later and know how many records to read out of it. . . , if you used NON-FIXED size variables (like a String) then you will need a diferent method to get in in and out of a file data segment, you would record the length of the string (usually an integer value) and then write all of the characters in the string to file. . . . I have made a web site for using the TfileStream for muti-segment data files at --

http://www.angelfire.com/hi5/delphizeus/customfiles.html

Or just you can try instead of saving in a bulk file, save into a XML file. Maybe more tedious ... but a solution at all.

Edu

unit Unit2;

interface

uses Windows, SysUtils, Classes;

type
TRec1 = record
I : Integer;
S : String;
end;

TRec2 = record
I : Integer;
B : Boolean;
end;

procedure SaveToFile(FileName : String);
procedure LoadFromStream(FileName : String);

var
Rec1 : Array [1..10] Of TRec1; // Static array
Rec2 : Array of TRec2; // Dynamic array

implementation

procedure SaveToFile(FileName : String);
var
I : Integer;
FS : TFileStream;
sSize : Integer;
sData : String;
begin
// Open file to write (create)
FS := TFileStream.Create(FileName,fmCreate);

// Save static array - we know numbers of items
For I := 1 To 10 Do
begin
// Write integer
FS.WriteBuffer(Rec1[I].I,SizeOf(Integer));

// Write String - write length first, then write data
sSize := Length(Rec1[I].S);
sData := Rec1[I].S;
FS.WriteBuffer(sSize,SizeOf(Integer));
FS.WriteBuffer(sData[1],sSize);
end;

// Save dynamic array
// Write number of items first
sSize := Length(Rec2);
FS.WriteBuffer(sSize,SizeOf(Integer));
For I := Low(Rec2) To High(Rec2) Do
begin
FS.WriteBuffer(Rec2[I].I,SizeOf(Integer));
FS.WriteBuffer(Rec2[I].B,SizeOf(Boolean));
end;

FS.Free;
end;

procedure LoadFromStream(FileName : String);
var
I : Integer;
FS : TFileStream;
sSize : Integer;
sData : String;
begin
// Open file to read
FS := TFileStream.Create(FileName,fmOpenRead);

// read static array
For I := 1 To 10 Do
Begin
// read integer
FS.ReadBuffer(Rec1[I].I,SizeOf(Integer));

// read string
FS.ReadBuffer(sSize,SizeOf(Integer));
SetLength(sData,sSize);
FS.ReadBuffer(sData[1],sSize);
Rec1[I].S := sData;
End;

// read dynamic array
FS.ReadBuffer(sSize,SizeOf(Integer));
SetLength(Rec2,sSize);
For I := Low(Rec2) To High(Rec2) Do
begin
FS.ReadBuffer(Rec2[I].I,SizeOf(Integer));
FS.ReadBuffer(Rec2[I].B,SizeOf(Boolean));
end;

FS.Free;
end;

end.

Slick812 thanx for that link :)
DarkCore, I didnt even think about xml (which I have never used) but Im gonna check that out thanx
and lmikle, thanx for the code