Can .NET load and parse a properties file equivalent to Java Properties class?

Is there an easy way in C# to read a properties file that has each property on a separate line followed by an equals sign and the value, such as the following:

ServerName=prod-srv1
Port=8888
CustomProperty=Any value

In Java, the Properties class handles this parsing easily:

Properties myProperties=new Properties();
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream (new File("CustomProps.properties"));
myProperties.load(fis);
System.out.println(myProperties.getProperty("ServerName"));
System.out.println(myProperties.getProperty("CustomProperty"));

I can easily load the file in C# and parse each line, but is there a built in way to easily get a property without having to parse out the key name and equals sign myself? The C# information I have found seems to always favor XML, but this is an existing file that I don't control and I would prefer to keep it in the existing format as it will require more time to get another team to change it to XML than parsing the existing file.

No there is no built-in support for this.

You have to make your own "INIFileReader". Maybe something like this?

var data = new Dictionary<string, string>();
foreach (var row in File.ReadAllLines(PATH_TO_FILE))
  data.Add(row.Split('=')[0], string.Join("=",row.Split('=').Skip(1).ToArray()));

Console.WriteLine(data["ServerName"]);

Edit: Updated to reflect Paul's comment.

Most Java ".properties" files can be split by assuming the "=" is the separator - but the format is significantly more complicated than that and allows for embedding spaces, equals, newlines and any Unicode characters in either the property name or value.

I needed to load some Java properties for a C# application so I have implemented JavaProperties.cs to correctly read and write ".properties" formatted files using the same approach as the Java version - you can find it at http://www.kajabity.com/index.php/2009/06/loading-java-properties-files-in-csharp/.

There, you will find a zip file containing the C# source for the class and some sample properties files I tested it with.

Enjoy!