[Help] importing a .txt file, but with certain objectives to fulfill

[The Chow]

Hi, all. I've been working on a gameshow game that I would like to present to a special interests club somewhere, and I've created a nice Wheel of Fortune-style game. Everything is done about it, and it looks nice. But I left the hardest part for last, which is what I want to ask about.

I'm sure I could figure this beginning part out myself, but given that this is just the beginning of my question, I figured I'd also ask it anyway: Could somebody give me a quick runthrough of how importing a .txt file is done? How should I set up my instances and actionscript? I remember trying it before a while ago, but never got it to work. But my objective is not to simply output text. I want to use it for a specifiy purpose.

This is the question I really wanted to ask:

How would I go about separating each new line in the .txt file as a new "object"?
Basically, the text file will consist of X number of lines, each line representing a different Phrase for my Wheel of Fortune game. However, on this same line, I will also include the Category after a certain token character is used (e.g. "/").

My basic view of how the text file would look would be like this:

Box of Cheese/Thing
Schoolyard/Place
Orson Welles/Person

...and I would add to this file as I come up with more phrases.

I realize that I could make this all internal within my ActionScript, but I don't intend on leaving my source file with other people, but rather leave the option for them to create the .txt file with their own phrases to use.

Once I can get this part understood, I am sure I can figure out how to integrate it into my game. (or else, I'll just ask here again for advice )

Thanks.

EDIT: After thinking about it for a little while more, I'd like to refine how I'm importing the stuff in the .txt file. I would probably be taking each character one-by-one and stuffing them onto the board.

[mr_malee]

i would use xml instead, its a good for formatting data into a nice readable.

<phrases>

<thing>
<phrase>Box of Cheese</phrase>
</thing>

<place>
<phrase>Schoolyard</phrase>
</place>

<person>
<phrase>Orson Welles</phrase>
</person>

</phrases>

[tonypa]

xml is advanced version and always recommended over txt files.

However, if you still wish to stick with txt you have to give each phrase name and separate them with &:

phrase1=Box of Cheese/Thing&phrase2=Schoolyard/Place&phrase3=Orson Welles/Person

Once the txt is loaded, you will have access to those variables in your game and you can use split function to get category from the string value.