list.add for a list (of ClassType) not adding to list - no errors reported - vb.net

Question

;tldr ...Orders.Add(order class variable) does not add a record the the Orders list, but also does not generate any errors.
I'll try to make a long story short and I apologize for the book you are about to read - I'm coming back to VB after spending a while in Python and C#. There is a bit of an explanation before any of the code...
I have a command-line exe program that at its base is working fine. We get 4 differently formatted CSV files that the program reads, and based on the file name, runs them through a parser that pulls the text information out of the file and populates a Public Class that in turn calls a function to populate a database table. The class is a single instance class named DataRecord. This program works absolutely fine (and has for well over 18 months now). It reads one line, if a batch# doesn't exist it creates one, and post the data class to the DB, and loops thru the file one line at a time doing so.
Also, their are 2 files to this program - the OrderAutomation main program file and the DBAccess file (which handle the DataRecord Class and all the various DB calls to verify information and to push the record into the database tables.
It used to be for all 4 file types, each file was a single batch all from a single region (data delimiters) - but now 1 of the file types will start sending multiple regions in a single file (and not necessarily in order) - so I need to modify the program that if its this 1 file type, it goes through the entire file, grouping each region together (each region will get its own Batch#).
I figured this would be fairly simple. I'd create an additional class (VTLData) that has some basic region separation data, and then a list of the DataRecord class. That looks like this:
Public Class VTLData
Public Property Locality As String
Public Property ARProvider As String
Public Property CORegion As String
Public Property BatchID As String
Public Property ProviderZip As String
Public Property IsValidRegion As Boolean
Public Property Orders As List(Of RecordData)
Public Sub New(s As String)
Locality = s
ARProvider = "00000000"
CORegion = "XX"
BatchID = "VXX-00000"
ProviderZip = "00000"
IsValidRegion = True
Orders = New List(Of RecordData)
End Sub
End Class
Like I said earlier - the RecordData class has no changes and is working fine.
There is a point in the program where I know this is the new file type (basically the region information has gone from a zip code to a set of specific text values) so when I test for that, if it's new, I set a boolean NewVTL to true. Because the file can contain more than one region, I have a VTLList property that is a List (of VTLData). I make sure I don't already have a Region in this list already - and if so, reference that index in the list.
When I get to the point where the program normally processes the record, I added the following (VTLIndex is the index variable for the list - at this time its value is 0):
If NewVTL Then
DB.data.CanProcess = CanProcessLine
DB.VTLList(VTLIndex).Orders.Add(DB.data)
Else
. - the old processing method
.
.
End If
I have a watch set for the VTLList(VTLIndex).Orders.Count value - that is at 0 when that line is reached, and stays at 0 when that line is processed.
I've tried creating a Push procedure in the VTLData class where you pass in the db.data class values, create a new instance of the record data and try to assign it that way
Public Sub PushOrder(item As RecordData)
Dim order As New RecordData
With order
.ARProviderNumber = ARProvider
.OrderID = item.OrderID
.AcctSuffix = item.AcctSuffix
.BatchID = BatchID
. - the 70 some other items in the recorddata class
.
.
End With
Orders.Add(order)
End Sub
This would also run without error, but not increase the count of .Orders.Count value.
I'm assuming its something stupid that I'm missing and I'm hoping someone can filter through all this and be like "You forgot to do blah..."
The only other thing I can think of is the do that Push function, but start it with Orders.Add(new RecordData) - and then modify the individual values through an index (.Orders(0).ARProviderNumber = data.ARProviderNumber... etc)
But based on other things I've done in VB - this should be working - I'm sure I'm just missing something...
So thanks for reaching this point - and thank you for letting me know what mistake I've made!!!

Answer 1

So the only way I got this to work for me was to create a Function in the VTLData class that did the following:
Public Function PushOrder(item As RecordData) As Boolean
Dim i As Integer = Orders.Count
Orders.Add(New RecordData)
With Orders(i)
.ARProviderNumber = ARProvider
.OrderID = item.OrderID
.AcctSuffix = item.AcctSuffix
.
. - more fields being populated
.
End With
If Orders.Count <= i Then Return False
Return True
End Function