The task is to read a configuration file in standard configuration file format,
and set variables accordingly.

For this task, we have a configuration file as follows:

# This is a configuration file in standard configuration file format
#
# Lines beginning with a hash or a semicolon are ignored by the application
# program. Blank lines are also ignored by the application program.

# This is the fullname parameter
FULLNAME Foo Barber

# This is a favourite fruit
FAVOURITEFRUIT banana

# This is a boolean that should be set
NEEDSPEELING

# This boolean is commented out
; SEEDSREMOVED

# Configuration option names are not case sensitive, but configuration parameter
# data is case sensitive and may be preserved by the application program.

# An optional equals sign can be used to separate configuration parameter data
# from the option name. This is dropped by the parser. 

# A configuration option may take multiple parameters separated by commas.
# Leading and trailing whitespace around parameter names and parameter data fields
# are ignored by the application program.

OTHERFAMILY Rhu Barber, Harry Barber



For the task we need to set four variables according to the configuration entries as follows:

fullname = Foo Barber
favouritefruit = banana
needspeeling = true
seedsremoved = false


We also have an option that contains multiple parameters. These may be stored in an array.

 otherfamily(1) = Rhu Barber
 otherfamily(2) = Harry Barber


Related tasks
 Update a configuration file


ClearAll[CreateVar, ImportConfig];
CreateVar[x_, y_String: "True"] := Module[{},
  If[StringFreeQ[y, ","]
   ,
   ToExpression[x <> "=" <> y]
   ,
   ToExpression[x <> "={" <> StringJoin@Riffle[StringSplit[y, ","], ","] <> "}"]
   ]
  ]
ImportConfig[configfile_String] := Module[{data},
  (*data = ImportString[configfile, "List", "Numeric" -> False];*)
  data=Import[configfile,"List","Numeric"\[Rule]False];
 
  data = StringTrim /@ data;
  data = Select[data, # =!= "" &];
  data = Select[data, ! StringMatchQ[#, "#" | ";" ~~ ___] &];
  data = If[! StringFreeQ[#, " "], StringSplit[#, " ", 2], {#}] & /@ data;
 
  CreateVar @@@ data;
 ]
ImportConfig[file]