create_datafile_index(3)        Allegro manual        create_datafile_index(3)



NAME
       create_datafile_index - Creates an index for a datafile. Allegro game
       programming library.

SYNOPSIS
       #include <allegro.h>


       DATAFILE_INDEX *create_datafile_index(const char *filename);

DESCRIPTION
       Creates an index for a datafile, to speed up loading single objects out
       of it. This is mostly useful for big datafiles, which you don't want to
       load as a whole. The index will store the offset of all objects inside
       the datafile, and then you can load it quickly with
       "load_datafile_object_indexed" later.  Use destroy_datafile_index to
       free the memory used by it again.

       Note: If the datafile uses global compression, there is no performance
       gain from using an index, because seeking to the offset still requires
       to uncompress the whole datafile up to that offset.  Example:

          DATAFILE_INDEX *index = create_datafile_index("huge.dat");
          DATAFILE *object = load_datafile_object_indexed(index, 1234);
          ...
          unload_datafile_object(object);
          destroy_datafile_index(index);

RETURN VALUE
       A pointer value which you can pass to load_datafile_object_indexed.


SEE ALSO
       destroy_datafile_index(3), load_datafile_object_indexed(3)



Allegro                          version 4.2.3        create_datafile_index(3)
