INI read... slow??? o.O

[Darmakwolf]

I have a decent-size ini file for a map database. (366 kb, about 20,000 lines in it.) Just reading ONE value seems to lag my program for a good 5 seconds flat. Is there a better alternative to iniget$() ?

[Schranz0r]

READ...

look in the Helpfile

[Slydog]

You could try manually reading and parsing the data, using OPENFILE and READLINE.

Split the line into command / value by using SPLITSTR with a delimiter of "=".
(Or manually by using INSTR).

[Darmakwolf]

The problem with that is ... wouldn't I have to dump the entire file into memory in order to parse with INSTR or SPLITSTR? I really don't think that'd be too quick...

[Slydog]

I don't think so if you use READLINE.
It should only keep the current line in memory.
Then you process it, then read the next line.

[Wampus]

If the whole map isn't loaded directly into memory (which should be fairly quick, especially with READIEEE) and strings aren't being read sequentially and but need to be random access then TBH it sounds like a carefully designed data structure would be better - something with a look-up table to keep track of where the strings are held and can deal with string splitting, a bit like file allocation and fragmentation.

[matchy]

How about storing map layout data in a bitmap sprite? 

[Darmakwolf]

Thanks to your suggestions - I re-wrote my map engine to use writestr. It's saved me a TON of loading time! Who knew iniput was that slow?! this is like a 2000% speed increase at least. Even loading a 300KB text file into memory AND parsing all of its contents takes ~1 second now. Thank you all

[MrTAToad]

INIGET and INIPUT should be fast...

[BdR]

I guess INI files are meant to read and write a handfull of parameters for your app. Like sound on/off, last level played, lastplayer name and other game settings like that. So using an INI file to store such large maps seems like a mismatch.

Also, do you store the tiles something like this?

Code (glbasic) Select Expand

1=41
2=43
3=53
etc.
Or something like this

Code (glbasic) Select Expand

row1=13245463576799435
row2=24376516475168437
etc.
I think the first one would take more time than the second.

[MrTAToad]

Oh yes, INI files should not be used for anything other application settings - you would normally have map data as binary information so that it can't be easily modified, and is quick to load.

[BdR]

Actually I also use INI files to store the level layouts in my puzle game. But those are very small tile maps, 8x8 tiles. So each level is a 128 character string which, for a setting, is kind of a long string but it's manageable and loading is fast enough.

I'd just use binary file for anything bigger than that, I mean like a 200x200 tiles Zelda-type map or Super Mario platform layout.

[hardyx]

Ini files are used for config settings, not for databases, because the reading/searching keys in a big file is slow.