Creating a document

qARK Document supports the builder pattern to make creating easier.

var doc = new qARKDocument()
    .AddComment("This is a comment")
    .AddEntry("isOn", true)
    .AddSpace()
    .StartGroup("item")
    .StartArrayEntry("values")
    .AddArrayItem(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(100))
    .AddArrayItem(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10))
    .FinishGroup();

After serialization, the resulting string would look like this:

# This is a comment
isOn = True

--- item ---
values|
* 100 seconds
* 10 seconds
---

Changing a value

When creating a document from scratch, the builder pattern is great. But what if you already have a document and would like to change a couple of values?

This is where SetValue and SetValues come in handy.

Changing a single value

Let's change the value of isOn from our previous example.

doc.SetValue("isOn", false);

Now if we were to serialize the document, we would get this result:

# This is a comment
isOn = True

--- item ---
values|
* 100 seconds
* 10 seconds
---

note

SetValue will only change the value of the first instance of an entry.

doc.SetValue("values", TimeSpan.FromSeconds(20));

--- item ---
values|
# This one has the new value
* 20 seconds
# This one is using the previous one
* 10 seconds
---

When working with array entries, read the next section.

Changing the value of an array

Let's change the value of item.values from the first example.

doc.SetValues("item.values", [ 1, 4, 8 ]);

Now if we were to serialize the document, we would get this result:

# This is a comment
isOn = True

--- item ---
values|
* 1
* 4
* 8
---

The SetValues method will modify, add and remove entries in order to make the value of the path we provided be equal to what we set.