Count Number of Times Program Was Launched Using .INI Files

Category:

Miscellaneous

Type:

Snippets

Difficulty:

Beginning

Author:

Aaron Wright

Version Compatibility: Visual Basic 6, Visual Basic 5

More information:

This is an example of how to count the number of times your program has been launched.

Instructions: Copy the declarations and code below and paste directly into your VB project.

Declarations:
'IF YOU NEED ANY HELP! FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME AT: 'Aaron_Wright@yahoo.com 'Cheers!! Declare Function GetPrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" _ Alias "GetPrivateProfileStringA" (ByVal lpApplicationName As _ String, ByVal lpKeyName As String, ByVal lpDefault As String, _ ByVal lpReturnedString As String, ByVal nSize As Long, ByVal _ lpFileName As String) As Long Declare Function WritePrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" _ Alias "WritePrivateProfileStringA" (ByVal lpApplicationName As _ String, ByVal lpKeyName As String, ByVal lpString As Any, ByVal _ lpFileName As String) As Long

Code:

'''THIS GOES INTO A MODULE!

Function ReadINI(Section, KeyName, filename As String) As String
    Dim sRet As String
    sRet = String(255, Chr(0))
    ReadINI = Left(sRet, GetPrivateProfileString(Section, _
      ByVal  KeyName, "", sRet, Len(sRet), filename))
End Function

Function writeini(sSection As String, sKeyName As String, sNewString As String, sFileName) As Integer
    Dim r
    r = WritePrivateProfileString(sSection, _
       sKeyName, sNewString, sFileName)
End Function

'PASTE ALL OF THE ABOVE (INCLUDING DECL IN A MODULE, 
'THAT WILL BE THE INI MODULE!!
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

'''THIS SHOULD GO INTO THE FORM_LOAD SUB OF A FORM!!

''YOU SHOULD DELETE THE NEXT LINE AFTER THE FIRST LAUNCH!! 
'OR YOU CAN MANUALLY SET THE INI TO:
'[Startup]
'#=0
'OR YOU CAN WRITE THE INI AT RUNTIME!'
WriteINI "Startup","#", "0",App.Path & "\file.ini"

'GET THE LAST NUMBER LAUNCHED
LastNum = ReadINI("Startup", "#", App.Path & "\file.ini")

'ADD THE CURRENT NUMBER THE LAST NUMBER
writeini "Startup", "#", 1 + LastNum, App.Path & "\file.ini"

'SHOW THE NUMBER IN A LABEL
lblTimes.Caption = ReadINI("Startup", "Count", _
   App.Path & "\file.ini") & " Times"