My program creates an array of checkboxes at runtime as shown below:
For Looper = 0 To 36
Dim Ex1ConfigCheck As New CheckBox
frmSetup.Controls.Add(Ex1ConfigCheck) ' Add Control to from
Ex1ConfigCheck.Top = (Looper + 45) + (Looper * 18) ' Set Location
Ex1ConfigCheck.Left = 210
Ex1ConfigCheck.Text = Setup.ExCheckName(Looper) ' Set Text property from strArray
Next
This is where I don't know how to proceed.
I would like to fill a boolean array (ex. MyBoolean(37)) with the value of Ex1configCheck().Checked. The reason I would like to fill another array is because I need to be able to reference the value of the checkboxes in other parts of the code but can't access them until they are created. Also, I plan on saving the array out to a binary file.
Could someone point me in the right direction please?
If there are no other CheckBoxes in the same container as those ones then you can do this:
Dim flags = Me.Controls.OfType(Of CheckBox)().
Select(Function(cb) cb.Checked).
ToArray()
If the controls are in a different container than the form itself, replace Me with that container.
As suggested by #Jimi, you could also create a List(Of CheckBox) and assign that to a field, populating it when you create the controls. You can then use that list instead of creating one on demand:
Dim flags = myCheckBoxList.Select(Function(cb) cb.Checked).
ToArray()
Of course, if you know exactly how many CheckBoxes you are going to be adding, why do you need to wait until run time to create them? Why can't you create them at design time and then modify them at run time? You usually only create controls at run time if you don't know how many there will be until run time, but that seems not to be the case here.
Thanks all for your answers and comments. I always have a fear of being roasted when I ask what some may consider a simple question online.
I have found an alternative way of accomplishing my task. Instead of creating 8 "Arrays" of checkboxes, I have learned of a very simple control available called "CheckedListBox".
I really didn't need to create the checkboxes at runtime but was trying to find an easier way to create 8 groups of 37 checkboxes without having to manually name and set the properties of each one during design. I also wanted to be able to index them in my code to be able to update and read the value using simple loops. I could have done this by creating arrays of CheckBox but again, I would have had to manually initialize the arrays.
Once I found the CheckedListBox, I was able to accomplish what I want very quickly. I only had to set the properties of the 8 "groups" (CheckedListBox's) and fill them using the items property. The ListBox essentially created a List like Jimi suggested automatically and I can index thru each list with a loop as desired. Jimi's suggestion actually lead me to finding the CheckedListBox while I was searching for more information on using "List(of CheckBox)".
Sometimes talking to others helps me find the right questions to ask. Google was able to figure out what I wanted when I searched for "List(of CheckBox)". (:
Related
I just started rewriting an application from vba (Access) to vb.net + SQLServer so not very experienced in .net.
I am creating custom controls (Form + form controls) with a number of extra properties PrevValue, Modified (similar then the one of Textbox), Dirty, DirtyEnabled, SQLColumnName, SQLTableName to enable AutoUpdating and undoing in my forms the form exposes IsDirty, Initialising and Isready properties and an undo method.
Doing so it occurs that I have to write 3 times the same iteration code in different places:
For each Ctrl as Control in frm.Controls ' frm being a reference to the form
if typeOf Ctrl is MyTextBox
with DirectCast(Ctrl, MyTextBox)
' here comes the variable code depending what needs to be done
end with
elseif TypeOf Ctrl is MyComboBox
' etc.... for MyListBox, MyCheckBox etc....
I also have a number of custom controls MyNumBox and MyDateBox that inherit from MyTextBox but with some modified behavior (Formula evaluation, date manipulation, calendar...) how do I avoid doing an extra test on them.
One version of this Iteration is in the SQLProcessClass where the modified controls are added as SQLParameter and after iteration calling the SQLProcessClass Update or Insert, but ... after successful SQL activity I need to iterate through the controles again to reset the modified flag for each control. Elsewhere I need it to implement a form undo to reset all the controls to their previous values.
It seems to me I have two options
1. repeating that iteration code everywhere I need to iterate through the forms controls. I don't like it as every time I would need to create a new custom control I have to add some lines X times in different modules/classes ... very bad programming
2. Creating one form iteration procedure containing all the different activities that normally belong to another class within that "centralised" procedure, that could be better then (1) but I don't like it that much either.
Is there a better way of doing it using some .net functionality I don't master yet ?
Thanks for any advise.
Iterating through from controls can be tricky since controls are often nested. A more controlled approach would be to add another collection object to your form where you keep references to your added controls.....
e.g
Dim My_Widgets as New List(of Your-Control-Class-Name)
Then when you create the controls to the form also add them to that list.
My_Widgets.Add(Widget_Object)
After that it is a simple matter to iterate through that list.
For Each Widget as My_Widget_CLass in My_Widgets
' do what you need to do to Widget
Next
If you need to reference individual controls directly, use a dictionary object instead..
e.g.
Dim My_Named_Widgets as new Dictionary(of String, Your-Control-Class-Name)
Then add your control references to the dictionary by name
My_Named_WIdgets.add("<Whatever_You_USe_To_Identify_It>", Widget_Object)
You can then reference the specific control by the ID or name
My_Names_Widgets("ID").Property = Whatever '... etc
You seem to be indicating you have other controls for other purposes, as such it would be prudent to create similar collections for each type.
I have two forms with combo boxes. The combo box values are stored in My.Settings.testDevices. (System.Collections.Specialized.String.Collection) with a scope of User.
The second form adds the ability to add items to testDevices, and then upon exit it updates My.Settings.testDevices.
Now, only if I make a change to the settings (adding items only), when I exit back to the main form (which remains loaded throughout the process), my application crashes with the following message:
"Additional information: Destination array was not long enough. Check destIndex and length, and the array's lower bounds."
As I understand it, this might be a concurrency issue, however I'm not sure.
My code:
In my main form Load event: (to load from My.Settings)
testDevicesComboBoxMain.Items.Clear()
My.Settings.testDevices.CopyTo(mainFormTestDevices, 0)
testDevicesComboBoxMain.Items.AddRange(mainFormTestDevices)
Where "testDevicesComboBoxMain" is the combo box on the main form.
On the secondary form Close Event: (to save to My.Settings)
Dim items(testDevicesComboBox.Items.Count - 1) As String
testDevicesComboBox.Items.CopyTo(items, 0)
My.Settings.testDevices.Clear()
My.Settings.testDevices.AddRange(items)
My.Settings.Save()
I have found similar questions on here, but none with answers that I understand :P
As I am a beginner with vb.net, could any answers be provided in an easy to understand form please!
Thanks.
I forgot to add:
Public items(My.Settings.testDevices.Count - 1) As String
Public mainFormTestDevices(My.Settings.testDevices.Count - 1) As String
I tried setting separate declarations just in case there was some kind of conflict. These obviously do the same thing, just with different names.
I fixed it by adding a For loop to read from My.Settings.
For Each i As String In My.Settings.testDevices
testDevicesComboBoxMain.Items.Add(i)
Next
This seems to have cured the problem, and may perhaps be a more "modern" way of doing it?
I have around 15 comboboxes on my form, all being loaded with the same information pulled from a table(~150 entries). Currently I am taking the information from the table, then looping through the entries and adding them to each textbox. I'm wondering if there's a more efficient way to load these comboboxes then having to individually add the table entry into each combobox, having to list 15 lines of code within the For loop.
I'm not seeing any performance issues with this, but figured I might as well work with the most efficient way possible rather than stick with what works. :)
You can create a list of the combo boxes, and then just loop through them. For instance:
Dim cbos() As ComboBox = {ComboBox1, ComboBox2, ComboBox3}
For Each cbo As ComboBox In cbos
' Load cbo from table
Next
Alternatively, if they are named consistently, you could find the combo box by name:
For i As Integer = 1 to 15
Dim cbo As ComboBox = DirectCast(Controls("ComboBox" & i.ToString())), ComboBox)
' Load cbo from table
Next
Since Combobox items are a collection, if their elements are the same, you can build and array with the objects you want to insert, and then just insert this array to each ComboBox with the method AddRange() (it's a method which exists inside the Combobox.items).
Getting an example from MSDN:
Dim installs() As String = New String() {"Typical", "Compact", "Custom"}
ComboBox1.Items.AddRange(installs)
Then you would only have to do a loop to add the array to each ComboBox. Of course, you will need to build your array first on your own, instead of this easy string array from the example.
Reference:
MSDN - AddRange
You could also do it this way since you mentioned that you already have a table.
Use a datatable
Change your table object into a datatable, which will assist in binding to the comboboxes. It might help if you add the datatable to a dataset too. That way you can attach all ComboBoxes (which are UI elements that let users see information) to the same DataSource, which is the datatable, in the dataset.
Binding
Now all you need to do is loop through all the comboboxes and set the datasource to the same table, that is if you decide to do it programmatically like so:
ComboBox1.DataSource = ds.Tables(0)
ComboBox1.ValueMember = "au_id"
ComboBox1.DisplayMember = "au_lname"
A further tutorial on this with the example above is found here
You can then also get the user selected value with ComboBox1.selectedValue.
On the other hand, if you did this with C# WPF, you can bind each comboBox in the XAML directly, I am unsure if this can be done in VB.net as I tried to look for the option but did not manage to do so, something you might want to try though.
Some very useful tutorials and guides on Data binding, which you might be interested:
~ denotes recommended reading for your question
MSDN: Connect data to objects
DotNetPerls on DataGridView (note this isn't a combobox, just displaying values)
~ VBNet DataTable Usage from DotNetPerls (this is in relation to 1.)
~ SO Q&A on Binding a comboBox to a datasource
Concepts of Databinding
Hey guys very new here.
Have a listbox that gets account names from a specific game server using this command line
Dim apikeyinfo As APIKeyInfo = api.getApiKeyInfo()
lstbxCharacters.DataSource = apikeyinfo.Characters
this code gets all the characters in a single account by displaying it in a listbox.
Now i would like to reference a character from the lisbox but not sure how
Any method such as Listbox.Get to get the value and compare it with something else?
Thanks
you can try something like
lstbxCharacters.SelectedItem
Update
To read the data from the listbox I think there are multiple ways (Assuming that it is readable).
-> Usually listbox display strings, so it should work to read to a string variable
Dim a_string as Strin = lstbxCharacters.SelectedItem
also you may like to add a small check before, assuring that an Item is currently selected:
If lstbxCharacters.SelectedIndex < 0 then return
This jumps out of current sub if no item is selected
And finally, to read the first entry, you can also do it this way:
a_string = lstbxCharacters.Items(0)
if it returns objects, then instead of accessing the object directly, it may work to do
a_string = lstbxCharacters.Items(0).ToString
(most objects allow a .ToString() Function )
Here two ideas for different solutions:
As a user commented, you could access the DataSource directly + the information which listIndex was selected. But if you do so, then maybe it is more easy (if you need to access it anyways, to go with solution 2)
Create a variable of type list(Of some_object) and fill it with the data from the datasource. It will take some time to do this, but if you define for the class some_object a function ToString, then you can fill all objects directly to the lstbxCharacters, and access them without any worries, by doing CType(lstbxCharacters.SelectedItem, some_object)
Update 2
If with reference you mean to access further information from the datasource, then you need to build some kind of query, or set the content of the listbox in relation to another control that shows the database content (in that way the listbox lstbxCharacters would act like a filter)
This might be a bit of a dumb question, but I'm trying to add some extra key/value pairs to a combo box using VB.NET. The initial item list is generated from a hashtable, which contains a collection of objects.
I've managed to add the extra values to the box using the Add method, however I now run into problems when reading back the selected item from the combo box because some list items are objects, while others are strings.
My best option seems to be to load the initial data as key/value pairs by looping through the hashtable, however this doesn't seem to be working too well either because I'm still getting errors.
I'm getting frustrated because it's taking me hours to do something that should take 5 minutes!
I'll post some sample code if it will help.
You could check the type of SelectedItem on the combo box, and use that to determine whether you are dealing with one of your objects or not.
If TypeOf myComboBox.SelectedItem Is GetType(ObjectClass) Then
Else
End If