How to get the value of a column using a dataview in vb.net - vb.net

Question

I have a list of records and for Employee R1005, I need to check if that Employee has been Enabled for login alert (i.e EnableLoginAlert = Yes), then a button will be displayed.
CompanyID EmployeeNo EnableLoginAlert
10046 R1005 Yes
20041 Ajax12 No
47021 Drek Yes
I have tried the below codes:
If dCompanyDetails.Tables(0).Rows.Count > 0 Then
Dim dataView As DataView = dCompanyDetails.Tables(0).DefaultView
dataView.RowFilter = "EmployeeNo = '" & strEmployeeNumber & "'"
Dim svalue As String = dataView.Table.Rows(0).ItemArray(0).ToString()
If svalue = "No" Then
AlertButton.Visible = False
ElseIf svalue = "Yes" Then
{
//Do something else
}
End If
End If

Answer 1

If you are going to use a DataView then use it. This:
Dim svalue As String = dataView.Table.Rows(0).ItemArray(0).ToString()
is simply going back to the DataTable and using it, ignoring the DataView. The DataView contains DataRowView objects so get the one you need and use it. It is similar to a DataRow and you can use it the same way in this case:
Dim enableLoginAlert = CStr(dataView(0)("EnableLoginAlert")) = "Yes"
Now you have an actual Boolean that represents the state you want.
That's not how you should do it though. Generally speaking, you would use a DataView when you want to bind data. In fact, if you bind a DataTable then the data you see in the UI actually comes from the DefaultView. That's why you can filter and sort it. In this case, there are better options.
If you want to find a row by its primary key then the Rows collection of a DataTable has a Find method, e.g.
Dim row = dCompanyDetails.Tables(0).Rows.Find(strEmployeeNumber)
Dim enableLoginAlert = CStr(row("EnableLoginAlert")) = "Yes"
If you're searching by other than the primary key, the DataTable itself has a Select method. Because multiple rows may match, it returns an array, so you need to get the row out of that, e.g.
Dim row = dCompanyDetails.Tables(0).Select($"EmployeeNo = '{strEmployeeNumber}'").First()
Dim enableLoginAlert = CStr(row("EnableLoginAlert")) = "Yes"

Answer 2

If you want to look up a single row it's perhaps easiest to use LINQ:
Dim row = dCompanyDetails.Tables(0).Rows.Cast(Of DataRow).AsQueryable().FirstOrDefault(Function(r) r("EmployeeNo").ToString() = strEmployeeNumber)
If row IsNot Nothing AndAlso row("EnableLoginAlert").ToString() = "Yes" Then
...
..though I'd be the first to claim that using LINQ on base DataTables is very verbose, because of the Cast/AsQueryable. I'd use strongly typed DataTables (in a dataset); if you were to convert your code to using strongly typed tables it would look like:
Dim r = someDataSet.AProperTableName.FirstOrDefault(Function(r) r.EmployeeNo = strEmployeeNumber)
If r?.EnableLoginALert = "Yes" Then
...
...using strongly typed datatables is much less messy..
nb: You need to Imports System.Linq for these to work
That LINQ is the same thing as:
For Each r as DataRow in dCompanyDetails.Tables(0)
If r("EmployeeNo").ToString() = "R1005" AndAlso r("EnableLoginAlert").ToString() = "Yes" Then
...
You also have the option of using DataTable.Select (not a LINQ thing, though LINQ has a Select too)
Dim matchingRows = dCompanyDetails.Tables(0).Select($"[EmployeeNo] = '{strEmployeeNumber}'")
If matchingrows.Count > 0 AndAlso matchingRows(0)("EnableLoginAlert").ToString() = "Yes"