LCSilverio.IniMapper 1.0.0

IniMapper — Simple INI Serializer & Deserializer for C#

Overview

• I've created IniMapper to be essentially a lightweight C# package that provides easy serialization and deserialization of INI files into strongly typed objects — similar to how System.Text.Json works for JSON.
• I just wanted that "easy" abstraction on other legacy projects where i need to work with INI files but don't wanted the hassle of creating a factory method or something like that hidden in that good old "Utilities" folder we all have

It supports:

• Deserializing from strings, byte arrays, or file paths
• Serializing any object back into a INI formatted text block
• Mapping sections to properties and keys to fields
• Case-insensitive property matching

Summary

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Summary
• Table of Contents
• Installation
• Example Data Model
• Deserialization
• Serialization
• Notes
• Example Output Structure
• License

Installation

Simply add the IniMapper.cs file to your project — no external dependencies required.

Example Data Model

public class Config
{
    public DatabaseSection Database { get; set; } = new();
    public AppSection App { get; set; } = new();
}

public class DatabaseSection
{
    public string Server { get; set; }
    public int Port { get; set; }
}

public class AppSection
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Version { get; set; }
}

Deserialization

From string

var iniText = @"
[Database]
Server = localhost
Port = 5432

[App]
Name = MyApp
Version = 1.0.0
";

var config = IniMapper.Deserialize<Config>(iniText);
Console.WriteLine(config.Database.Server); // localhost

From file

var config = IniMapper.DeserializeFromFile<Config>("settings.ini");
Console.WriteLine(config.App.Version); // e.g. "1.0.0"

From byte array

byte[] iniBytes = File.ReadAllBytes("settings.ini");
var config = IniMapper.Deserialize<Config>(iniBytes);

Serialization

var cfg = new Config
{
    Database = new DatabaseSection { Server = "localhost", Port = 3306 },
    App = new AppSection { Name = "DemoApp", Version = "2.5" }
};

string iniOutput = IniMapper.Serialize(cfg);
File.WriteAllText("output.ini", iniOutput);

Output:

[Database]
Server=localhost
Port=3306

[App]
Name=DemoApp
Version=2.5

Notes

• Properties are matched case-insensitively.
• Only public instance properties are mapped.
• Comment lines starting with ; or # are ignored.
• Null values are skipped during serialization.
• Each class property in the root type becomes an INI section.

Example Output Structure

INI File:

[Database]
Server=localhost
Port=5432

[App]
Name=ExampleApp
Version=1.0

C# Object Access:

var cfg = IniMapper.Deserialize<Config>(iniText);
Console.WriteLine(cfg.Database.Server); // localhost
Console.WriteLine(cfg.App.Name);        // ExampleApp

License

This utility is released under the MIT License.
Feel free to modify and use it in both personal and commercial projects.