[DUG] Reading Different Types from a Binary File

[Eric A]

This is probably a no-brainer to most of the DUG members, especially those used to pointers ...

I need to read and extract data from a binary file which comprises:
- a header with character type strings, each terminated by CR LF (not nulls)
- binary data area with a mixture of byte types, word types and double word types
- a file terminator of 0xFFFF hex

The files are not huge, less than 500KB, as the structure originates from old memory-constrained microprocessors of the 80's.

The header looks like it is based on the old INI file format and is of the form:

[Header]
Created=1349233072
Title=
Type=D
Version=162
[End]

The binary data area follows next.  It comprises different types of data blocks, with sub blocks, each of which contains either bytes, words or double words of data in a pre-defined pattern or structure depending on the type of data block.

I can read the file into a buffer (array of Char) but I currently have a
 chunk of somewhat ugly code to parse the header and find the start 
position of the binary data after the '[End] CR LF' string.  After that I need to extract data of various types depending on the specified datablock types, which I though I might have to use pointers for.

What's the best approach for 
a) Extracting the header strings - is there a Delphi function to extract CR LF terminated character sequences as strings and maintain a pointer to the end of the string?
b) Creating functions for ReadByte, ReadWord, ReadDoubleWord and incrementing the pointer appropriately in each case ?


Eric

 		 	   		  
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