The Basics of Saving Data in Multimedia Fusion 2 and Clickteam Fusion

Within MMFusion, the programmer is given a wide choice of ways to save including but not limited to the Array Object, Dynamic Array Object, Binary Tree Object, INI Object and INI++ objects. Out of the listed objects, two are of the most fundamental with regards to saving; the Array object and the INI object.

One definition of an array is as follows:

"An array is a series of elements of the same type placed in contiguous memory locations that can be individually referenced by adding an index to a unique identifier"

For those new to arrays or programming, an array can simply be thought of as a table or list where all the data elements are the same type (all integers, booleans, strings, etc...). The tables below represent string arrays of different sizes. Essentially anything that makes sense to add as a column or row in a table could be added as another dimension in an array. This concept applies to any kind of array.

Using the Array Object is fairly straightforward. You write string or numerical data to a specified index. Additionally, you can also load or save an array via a filename expression or a file selector.

Special Notes:

• The files the Array Object creates are only readable by MMFusion. The filename generated by the object can any type of file extension to it.
  

• There is a way increase the dimensional size of an array during runtime. Simply write data (it can be a blank string or 0) to an address outside of current dimension of the array. For example, if you saved "John" to (99,99) in a 0-based 3 x 3 array, the 3 x 3 array would increase to 100 x 100 array.
  

• The only way to decrease the dimensional size of an array is to leave the frame and come back or restart the frame. This will cause the array to revert to its original size. This will only work if the array is not global. Global arrays cannot be reduced in sized.
  

• Saves and loads data quickly; faster than the INI Object
  
• Difficult to externally manipulate array files
  
• Extremely easy to find each data element in an array
  
• Array can be global across frames
  
• Overall smaller size than the INI object (assuming both held the same set of data)
  
• Array data exist in internal memory rather than just a local file
• All array operations are executed on data in memory
• Easy to iterate through the array

• No way to decrease size of array during runtime through actions
  

• Concept of arrays difficult to grasp for newcomers and those unfamiliar
  

• Large arrays can take up increasingly huge amounts memory
  

• Indices are only addressable by numbers (not so much of a disadvantage, but takes time to get used to)

As stated before, the norm is for the data within .ini files be used to "personalize" a piece of software to its user(s). There are four sections in a plain INI file.

1. Located between square brackets [ ] is the group name. Each line under the group is part of the group. Example: [MyGroupName]
   
2. The next section in INI files is the delimiter field. A delimiters is just a character that is used to differentiate between a sequence of characters. For example, the English language uses the space character as a delimiter, meaning we can know where a word starts and ends by looking for spaces. In MMFusion, the default delimiter is the '=' character (equal sign). The delimiter in INIs separates the name and value sections. Example: MyItemName = MyItemValue
   
3. The name section always appears on the left side of the delimiter. Typically a string, this section is the name data field type. Example: MyItemName = MyItemValue
   
4. The value section always appears on the right side of the delimiter. The value section is a string, but can represent other data types such as integers, booleans, floating-point numbers, etc... It represents the value of its name field. Example: MyItemName = MyItemValue
   

• Human-friendly format
  

• Personalized structure in groups (different groups can have different sizes)
  

• INI files can be as big or as small as you need it to be
  

• INI concept easy to grasp
  

• Easy to externally manipulate INI files
  
• Saves and loads data slower than the Array Object; generally slower than other data storage methods
  
• Extremely difficult to loop through all data elements in INI file
  
• Impossible to find data elements in groups unless you know exactly where you should be looking (already know all the group names and item names)
  
• No explicit expression to retrieve the group count
  
• No explicit expression to retrieve the item count within a group
• No expression to retrieve Nth group/item
  
• Larger file size than the Array Object (assuming both hold the same set of data)
  
• Default ~64kb file size limit on older Windows operating systems (pre-Vista)
  
• No data is loaded into memory. All data is immediately saved to or loaded from the INI file

Arrays and INI files are two out of a vast number of options to save data in applications. Using both objects is fairly straightforward; you specify where you want to save the data and write said data to the file. The Array Object should be used over the INI Object in most cases. Such reasons why you would use the Array object over the INI object include if you need the data to be illegible to users, need a small file size, or have a table-like structure. The INI Object should be used over the Array Object if you wish the data to be editable by the users or have an inconsistent data structure. An example flow chart, below, shows compares the uses of both objects

Each object has its advantages and disadvantages, but it is up to you, the programmer, to make the best out of both!