From abb2aed73a9e5fb1fb2ea9fc77dd4ec134b9e686 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: sarankumar1325 <120080287+sarankumar1325@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2026 11:01:33 +0530
Subject: [PATCH] Cut SpaceBeforeInlineComment values at the earlier marker

With SpaceBeforeInlineComment, readValue looked for " #" first and only
looked for " ;" when " #" was absent. A value such as "foo ; note # ticket"
kept the "; note" part. Cut at whichever of " #" or " ;" appears first,
matching IndexAny when the option is off.

Fixes #426

Signed-off-by: sarankumar1325 <120080287+sarankumar1325@users.noreply.github.com>
---
 ini_test.go | 13 +++++++++++++
 parser.go   | 19 +++++++++++++++----
 2 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/ini_test.go b/ini_test.go
index a3d3b4c..83eafad 100644
--- a/ini_test.go
+++ b/ini_test.go
@@ -922,6 +922,19 @@ GITHUB = U;n;k;n;w;o;n
 				assert.Equal(t, "U#n#k#n#w#o#n", nameValue)
 				assert.Equal(t, "U;n;k;n;w;o;n", githubValue)
 			})
+			t.Run("cuts at the first spaced comment marker when the line has both", func(t *testing.T) {
+				f, err := LoadSources(
+					LoadOptions{AllowPythonMultilineValues: false, SpaceBeforeInlineComment: true},
+					[]byte("key = foo ; note # ticket\n"))
+				require.NoError(t, err)
+				assert.Equal(t, "foo", f.Section("").Key("key").String())
+
+				f, err = LoadSources(
+					LoadOptions{AllowPythonMultilineValues: false, SpaceBeforeInlineComment: true},
+					[]byte("key = foo # ticket ; note\n"))
+				require.NoError(t, err)
+				assert.Equal(t, "foo", f.Section("").Key("key").String())
+			})
 		})
 	})
 
diff --git a/parser.go b/parser.go
index 513b19e..24296b3 100644
--- a/parser.go
+++ b/parser.go
@@ -280,11 +280,22 @@ func (p *parser) readValue(in []byte, bufferSize int) (string, error) {
 	if !p.options.IgnoreInlineComment {
 		var i int
 		if p.options.SpaceBeforeInlineComment {
-			i = strings.Index(line, " #")
-			if i == -1 {
-				i = strings.Index(line, " ;")
+			// Cut at the earlier of " #" and " ;". Looking for " #" first
+			// and only then " ;" left a later " #" to hide an earlier " ;".
+			iHash := strings.Index(line, " #")
+			iSemi := strings.Index(line, " ;")
+			switch {
+			case iHash == -1:
+				i = iSemi
+			case iSemi == -1:
+				i = iHash
+			default:
+				if iHash < iSemi {
+					i = iHash
+				} else {
+					i = iSemi
+				}
 			}
-
 		} else {
 			i = strings.IndexAny(line, "#;")
 		}