Pasting new records to a Bound DataGridView - vb.net

Question

Apologies if this has already been asked. If so, I am unable to find a simple solution. I am trying to allow a user to copy/paste multiple records in a DataGridView (the in memory copy of the data, to be saved later when the user clicks the save button) and cannot find anything that works. It probably is because there is something I do not understand about all of this.
I set up a standard edit form with Visual Studio's drag/table into a form, so it's using a BindingSource control and all the other controls that come with doing that. It works just fine when manually entering something in the new row one by one, so it seems to be set up correctly, but when it comes to adding a record (or multiples) using code, nothing seems to work.
I tried a few things as outline in the code below. Could someone please at least steer me in the right direction? It cannot be that difficult to paste multiple records.
I run this when the user presses Control-V (the clipboard correctly holds the delimited strings):
Private Sub PasteClipboard()
If Clipboard.ContainsText Then
Dim sLines() As String = Clipboard.GetText.Split(vbCrLf)
For Each sLine As String In sLines
Dim Items() As String = sLine.Split(vbTab)
Dim drv As DataRowView = AdjustmentsBindingSource.AddNew()
drv.Item(1) = Items(0)
drv.Item(2) = Items(1)
drv.Item(3) = Items(2)
drv.Item(4) = Items(3)
'Error on next line : Cannot add external objects to this list.
AdjustmentsBindingSource.Add(drv)
Next
End If
End Sub
EDIT
(the bindingsource is bound to a dataadapter, which is bound to a table in an mdb file, if that helps understand)
I adjusted the inner part of the code to this:
If (RowHasData(Items)) Then
Dim drv As DataRowView = AdjustmentsBindingSource.AddNew()
drv.Item("FontName") = Items(0)
drv.Item("FontSize") = Items(1)
drv.Item("LetterCombo") = Items(2)
drv.Item("Adjustment") = Items(3)
drv.Item("HorV") = Items(4)
End If
It kinda works, but it also adds a blank row before the 2 new rows. Not sure where that is coming from, as I have even included your RowHasData() routine...

Answer 1

I would think that “attemp3” SHOULD work, however, it is unclear “what” the AdjustmentsBindingSource’s DataSource is. Is it a List<T> or DataTable?
If I set the BinngSource.DataSource to a DataTable, then attempt 3 appears to work. Below is an example that worked.
Private Sub PasteClipboard2()
If Clipboard.ContainsText Then
Dim sLines() As String = Clipboard.GetText.Split(vbCrLf)
For Each sLine As String In sLines
Dim Items() As String = sLine.Split(vbTab)
If (RowHasData(Items)) Then
Dim drv As DataRowView = AdjustmentsBindingSource.AddNew()
drv.Item("FontName") = Items(0)
drv.Item("FontSize") = Items(1)
drv.Item("LetterCombo") = Items(2)
drv.Item("Adjustment") = Items(3)
drv.Item("HorV") = Items(4)
End If
Next
End If
End Sub
This appears to work in my tests. I added a small function (RowHasData) to avoid malformed strings causing problems. It simply checks the size (at least 5 items) and also checks to make sure a row actually has “some” data. If a row is just empty strings, then it is ignored.
Private Function RowHasData(items As String())
If (items.Count >= 5) Then
For Each item In items
If (item <> "") Then Return True
Next
End If
Return False
End Function
I am guessing it would be just as easy to add the new rows “directly” to the BindingSource’s DataSource. In the example below, the code is adding the row “directly” to the DataTable that is used as a DataSource to the BindingSource. I am confident you could do the same thing with a List<T> by simply adding a new object to the list. Below is a complete example using a BindingSource and a DataTable. This simply adds the rows to the bottom of the table.
Dim gridTable1 As DataTable
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
PasteClipboard()
End Sub
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
gridTable1 = GetTable()
FillTable(gridTable1)
AdjustmentsBindingSource.DataSource = gridTable1
AdjustmentsDataGridView.DataSource = AdjustmentsBindingSource
End Sub
Private Function GetTable() As DataTable
Dim dt = New DataTable()
dt.Columns.Add("FontName", GetType(String))
dt.Columns.Add("FontSize", GetType(String))
dt.Columns.Add("LetterCombo", GetType(String))
dt.Columns.Add("Adjustment", GetType(String))
dt.Columns.Add("HorV", GetType(String))
Return dt
End Function
Private Sub FillTable(dt As DataTable)
For index = 1 To 10
dt.Rows.Add("Name_" + index.ToString(), "Size_" + index.ToString(), "Combo_" + index.ToString(), "Adjust_" + index.ToString(), "HorV_" + index.ToString())
Next
End Sub
Private Sub PasteClipboard()
If Clipboard.ContainsText Then
Dim sLines() As String = Clipboard.GetText.Split(vbCrLf)
Try
Dim dataRow As DataRow
For Each sLine As String In sLines
Dim Items() As String = sLine.Split(vbTab)
If (RowHasData(Items)) Then
dataRow = gridTable1.NewRow()
dataRow("FontName") = Items(0)
dataRow("FontSize") = Items(1)
dataRow("LetterCombo") = Items(2)
dataRow("Adjustment") = Items(3)
dataRow("HorV") = Items(4)
gridTable1.Rows.Add(dataRow)
End If
Next
Catch ex As Exception
MessageBox.Show("Error: " + ex.Message)
End Try
End If
End Sub
Private Function RowHasData(items As String())
If (items.Count >= 5) Then
For Each item In items
If (item <> "") Then Return True
Next
End If
Return False
End Function
Hope the code helps…
Last but important, I am only guessing that you may have not “TESTED” the different ways users can “SELECT” data and “how” other applications “copy” that selected data. My previous tests using the WIN-OS “Clipboard” can sometimes give unexpected results. Example, if the user selects multiple items using the ”Ctrl” key to “ADD” to the selection, extra rows appeared in the Clipboard if the selection was not contiguous. My important point is that using the OS clipboard is quirky IMHO. I recommend LOTS of testing on the “different” ways the user can select the data. If this is not an issue then the code above should work.