In Text.Ini the command TSection.Get() does not work correct

[MidimasterSoft]

It looks like TSection.Get() does not work as expected in cases where the property is a "" (empty string)

When I store the empty string to an INI file, the key exists.

' INI.File:
....
[Seite1]
Name=
...

But when I now try to read back the empty string, I get a NULL:

Function GetName (Section:TIniSection, Key:String)
     Local Name:String = Section.Get(Key)
     if Name=NULL Then runtimeerror "no such key"
     Print "!" + Name+ "!"

I would expect to get back an empty string, but I receive a Runtime Error

[woollybah]

In BlitzMax Strings, Null and "" are equivalent.

There is no such concept as the complete absence of a String.

I suppose what we really need is something like Method Has:Int(key:String) which returns True if the entry exists.

[GWRon]

@woollybah I would suggest you (or someone else) adds a TryGet() which acts similar to your TTreeMap-Code (brl.collections). So it returns an Int which tells you 0 = key not found, 1 = key found. And you need to pass a v:String which is filled with the value (or empty / not adjusted if not found).

[GWRon]

	Rem
	bbdoc: Gets the value associated with the specified @section and @name.
	returns: #True if an element with the specified @section and @name exists; otherwise, #False.
	about: When this method returns, @value contains the value found if existing;
	otherwise, @value will remain unchanged.

	End Rem
	Method TryGet:String(section:String, name:String, value:String Var)
		Local s:TIniSection
		If section = Null Then
			s = GetSection(INI_GLOBAL_SECTION)
		Else
			s = FindSection(section)
		End If

		If s Then
			Local p:TIniProperty = s.FindProperty(name)
			If p Then
				value = p.GetValue()
				Return True
			Else
				Return False
			End If
		End If
	End Method

Something like this.

[MidimasterSoft]

Empty String is NULL?... Ah! Did not know this and never stumbled over this behaviour...

There is already a (working) method to check the existence of a key:

TSection.FindProperty( key$)

This is actually the way I build a workaround

local text:String
Local Property:TIniProperty = Section.FindProperty("NAME")
If Property=Null	
	RuntimeError "propery NAME does not exist"
	' now create this key in the Ini, etc...
	. . .
	text=""
Else
	text = Section.Get("NAME")
EndIf
Print "found propery NAME: !" + text + "!"

[HurryStarfish]

Yes, the meaning of Null in BlitzMax is "the default value of whatever type you convert it to". For most classes, that is a special invalid "null object", but for strings it's "", for arrays it's [], for functions it's BRL.Blitz.NullFunctionError, for numbers it's 0 etc.