Do standard windows ini files allow comments

Question

Are comments allowed in Windows ini files      assuming you re using the GetPrivateProfileString api functions to read them       Section  Name Value     comment    full line comment   And  is there a proper spec of the  INI file format anywhere    Thanks for the replies - However maybe I wasn t clear enough  It s only the format as read by Windows API Calls that I m interested in  I know other implementations allow comments  but it s specifically the MS Windows spec and implementation that I need to know about

User · Answer

Yes  Have a look at Wikipedia and Cloanto Implementation of INI File Format  see bottom of page

User · Answer

Windows INI API support for    Line comments  yes  using semi-colon   Trailing comments  No   The authoritative source is the Windows API function that reads values out of INI files     GetPrivateProfileString      Retrieves a string from the specified section in an initialization file    The reason  full line comments  work is because the requested value does not exist  For example  when parsing the following ini file contents    Application  UseLiveData 1  coke zero pepsi diet    gag  stackoverflow splotchy   Reading the values    UseLiveData  1 coke  not present  coke  not present pepsi  diet    gag stackoverflow  not present  stackoverflow  splotchy   Update  I used to think that the number sign     was a pseudo line-comment character  The reason using leading   works to hide stackoverflow is because the name stackoverflow no longer exists  And it turns out that semi-colon     is a line-comment   But there is no support for trailing comments

User · Answer

I have seen comments in INI files  so yes  Please refer to this Wikipedia article  I could not find an official specification  but that is the correct syntax for comments  as many game INI files had this as I remember   Edit  The API returns the Value and the Comment  forgot to mention this in my reply   just construct and example INI file and call the API on this  with comments  and you can see how this is returned

User · Answer

USE A SEMI-COLON AT BEGINING OF LINE ---      lt  lt ---  Ex     last modified 1 April 2001 by John Doe  owner  name John Doe organization Acme Widgets Inc

[windows] Do standard windows .ini files allow comments?

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