Settings on a String

Algorithm

Easy

text

dictionary

parsing

Settings on a String

Your extension keeps its integration settings in a single Text value — retries=3;timeout=30;endpoint=https://api.example.com — the way BC apps often stash options in an Isolated Storage entry or one setup field. Right now every feature re-splits that string by hand, and each copy of the code disagrees about spaces, duplicates, and broken entries.

Your job is the one parser they should all call: turn the raw string into a Dictionary of [Text, Text] with well-defined rules for trimming, duplicates, and malformed entries.

Requirements

Create a codeunit named "Config Parser" with one public procedure:

procedure Parse(Config: Text): Dictionary of [Text, Text]

Parsing rules — all of them are graded:

Entries are separated by ;. Entries that are empty or only spaces (a double ;;, a trailing ;, a blank segment) are skipped.
Each entry is cut at its first =: the part before it is the key, and everything after it is the value — so a value may itself contain = (think base64 like abc==).
Keys and values are trimmed of leading and trailing spaces; spaces inside them are preserved (log level = verbose mode → key log level, value verbose mode).
A value that is empty after trimming is fine: the key maps to an empty text.
When the same key appears more than once, the last occurrence wins — the dictionary holds one entry for that key, with the last value.
Keys are case-sensitive: Mode and mode are two different keys.
An entry that has no =, or whose key is empty after trimming (like =5), is invalid: raise an error with a message that contains Invalid config entry.
An empty or all-spaces Config yields an empty dictionary.

What the tests check

The tests call Parse and verify every rule above: a plain two-entry config, spaces around keys and values, values containing =, an empty value, skipped empty segments, last-one-wins duplicates, case-sensitive keys, the Invalid config entry error for an entry with no = and for an empty key (substring match on the message), empty and all-spaces input, and one config assembled from randomized keys and values so hardcoding the examples fails. Key and value comparisons are exact — trimming must remove all leading and trailing spaces and nothing else.

Learn More

Hint 1

The Text data type carries its own toolbox — splitting on a separator, trimming spaces, and finding a character's position are each a single built-in call; no manual character loop is needed.

Hint 2

Splitting an entry on '=' breaks the moment a value contains '=' itself. Find the position of the entry's first '=' instead and cut the entry there: everything before is the key, everything after is the value.

Hint 3

Dictionary.Add errors on a duplicate key — the opposite of the required policy. Use Set, which adds or replaces, and 'last one wins' falls out for free. For invalid entries, raise Error with a message that starts with 'Invalid config entry' — the tests match that substring.

ALBusiness Central 28.4

Press Compile to check your code compiles — Submit runs the tests.

The code editor is desktop-only

Open this problem on a computer to write and run code. Reading the description, tests and discussion works fine here.