Community discussion forum

Help with line reading from txt file

• • Reply

  2 years ago

  by Load3r

  james w

  , United States

  Joined 2 years ago

  Hi,

  Was reading this tutorial : http://www.developerfusion.co.uk/show/37/5/ and I wondered if there was a way to read every OTHER line, rather than every line.

  I'm making a small login program where you can register.. but i need to read usernames from a txt file and see if it has been taken. 

  At the moment the format in my txt file is:

  username
  password
  username
  password
  
  
  

  Regards

  Loader

  Report abuse
• • Reply

  2 years ago

  by Zorro_ot

  Oliver Tell

  Hamburg, Germany

  Joined 3 years ago

  1.) I assume that you use some code like this at the moment:

  ...
  Do While Not EOF(nFileNum)
      Line Input #nFileNum, sNextLine
      'do something with it
      'add line numbers to it, in this case!
      sNextLine = lLineCount & " " & sNextLine & vbCrLf
      sText = sText & sNextLine
      lLineCount = lLineCount + 1
  Loop
  ...

  Please try to modify this code to something like this:

  dim username(999) as string
  dim password(999) as string
  dim counter as integer
  ...
  Do While Not EOF(nFileNum)
      Line Input #nFileNum, username(counter)
      Line Input #nFileNum, password(counter)
      lLineCount = lLineCount + 2
      counter = counter + 1
  Loop
  ...

  
  2.) The security of your application is the worst I have ever seen. Storing usernames and passwords as plain text is like using no usernames and no passwords. If some people are using the same password for your application and other applications, you are also compromising these applications and not only your own. Please try to use at least some basic methods of encryption to usernames, passwords and the file name.
  
  Report abuse
• • Reply

  2 years ago

  by sledghammer64

  sledghammer64

  , India

  Joined 2 years ago
  use an basic encryption to strore the username and passwords....
  
  and never use the extension as .txt use something else or do not use it at all...this will make the attacker job a bit hader( remember just a bit may be)
  
  I am also trying to create a program ...please standby
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Report abuse
• • Reply

  2 years ago

  by sync_or_swim

  Rob Bickel

  S. Wales, United Kingdom

  Joined 4 years ago

  Heres a basic encryption function which you could use to at least make it slightly harder to discover your passwords:
  
  Private Function Encrypt(ByVal RawString As String)
      Dim x, i, tmp
      For i = 1 To Len(RawString)
          x = Mid(RawString, i, 1)
          tmp = tmp & Chr(Asc(x) + 1)
      Next
      tmp = StrReverse(tmp)
      Encrypt = tmp
  End Function
  
  To encrypt a string just call it like:
  Dim myString As String
  myString = Encrypt(Text1.Text)
  
  Use logic like that provided by Zorro_ot to encrypt your passwords:
  
  Open "C:\inputfile.txt" For Input As #1
  Open "C:\encryptedfile.txt" For Output As #2
  Do While Not EOF(1)
      Dim inString, outString As String
      Line Input #1, inString
      Print #2, inString
      Line Input #1, inString
      outString = Encrypt(inString)
      Print #2, outString
  Loop
  Close #1
  Close #2
  
  Now, when you wish to compare a password, encrypt the raw string and compare the two encrypted strings.  There are far more effective methods of encryption such as MD5 hashing but this is better than nothing!!!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Report abuse