VB.NET How to correctly loop through a result set - vb.net

Question

I have looked at many different code snippets on this site looking that would show me how to do something that should be fairly simple once I have the knowledge.
I want to query a database table for an array of values and then populate a combobox with those results.
Here is what I have so far:
Public Sub getMachines()
Try
Dim SQL As String = "SELECT MachineName from machine"
Form1.machineName.DisplayMember = "Text"
Dim tb As New DataTable
tb.Columns.Add("Text", GetType(String))
Using cn As New MySqlConnection(ConnectionString)
Using cmd As New MySqlCommand(SQL, cn)
For Each cmd As String In cmd
'I want to add each value found in the database to "tb.Rows.Add"
'tb.Rows.Add(???)
Next
Form1.machineName.DataSource = tb
cn.Open()
cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()
End Using
cn.Close()
End Using
Catch ex As MySqlException
MsgBox(ex.Message)
End Try
End Sub

Answer 1

I proceeded much like you did. I used the Load method of the DataTable. It is not necessary to set the column name and type. The name of the column is taken from the Select statement and the datatype is inferred by ADO.net from the first few records.
Luckily a DataTable can be an Enumerable using the .AsEnumnerable method. Then we can use Linq to get all the values from the MachineName column. Calling .ToArray causes the Linq to execute. If you hold your cursor over names on this line you will see that the datatype is String(). Just what we need to fill a combo box.
Code for a class called DataAccess
Private ConnectionString As String = "Your Connection String"
Public Function GetMachineNames() As String()
Dim tb As New DataTable
Dim SQL As String = "SELECT MachineName from machine;"
Using cn As New MySqlConnection(ConnectionString)
Using cmd As New MySqlCommand(SQL, cn)
cn.Open()
dt.Load(cmd.ExecuteReader)
End Using
End Using
Dim names = dt.AsEnumerable().Select(Function(x) x.Field(Of String)("MachineName")).ToArray()
Return names
End Function
In the form load you combo box like this.
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Dim DatAcc As New DataAccess()
Dim arr = DatAcc.GetMachineNames()
machineName.DataSource = arr
End Sub

Answer 2

If you just want the MachineName to be displayed in the ComboBox, then just use that as the DisplayMember; don't bother creating another column called Text.
Public Sub getMachines()
Try
Dim cmd As String = "SELECT MachineName from machine"
Dim ds As New DataSet()
Using con As New MySqlConnection(ConnectionString)
Using da As New MySqlDataAdapter(cmd, con)
da.Fill(ds)
With Form1.machineName
.DisplayMember = "MachineName"
.ValueMember = "MachineName"
.DataSource = ds
End With
End Using
End Using
Catch ex As MySqlException
MsgBox(ex.Message)
End Try
End Sub

Answer 3

I'll show a few examples, including using parameters, since that is important.
First up, a quick translation to run the existing query and loop through the results:
Public Sub getMachines()
Try
Dim SQL As String = "SELECT MachineName from machine"
Using cn As New MySqlConnection(ConnectionString), _
cmd As New MySqlCommand(SQL, cn)
cn.Open()
Using rdr As MySqlDatareader = cmd.ExecuteReader
While rdr.Read()
Form1.machineName.Items.Add(rdr("MachineName"))
End While
End Using
End Using
Catch ex As MySqlException
MsgBox(ex.Message)
End Try
End Sub
But better practice for a method like this is to isolate data access for the UI. This method should return results to the caller, which can decide what do with them. So I'll show two methods: one to get the data, and the other to loop through it and set up the combobox:
Private Function GetMachines() As DataTable
'No try/catch needed here. Handle it in the UI level, instead
Dim SQL As String = "SELECT MachineName from machine"
Dim result As New DataTable
Using cn As New MySqlConnection(ConnectionString), _
cmd As New MySqlCommand(SQL, cn),
da As New MySqlDataAdapter(cmd)
da.Fill(result)
End Using
Return result
End Function
Public Sub LoadMachines()
Try
For Each item As DataRow in getMachines().Rows
Form1.machineName.Items.Add(item("MachineName"))
Next
Catch ex As MySqlException
MsgBox(ex.Message)
End Try
End Sub
Or, we can use DataBinding:
Private Function GetMachines() As DataTable
Dim SQL As String = "SELECT MachineName from machine"
Dim result As New DataTable
Using cn As New MySqlConnection(ConnectionString), _
cmd As New MySqlCommand(SQL, cn),
da As New MySqlDataAdapter(cmd)
da.Fill(result)
End Using
Return result
End Function
Public Sub LoadMachines()
Try
Form1.machineName.DisplayMember = "FirstName";
Form1.machineName.ValueMember = "City"
Form1.machineName.DataSource = GetMachines()
Catch ex As MySqlException
MsgBox(ex.Message)
End Try
End Sub
If you ever want to use a filter, you might do this (notice the overloading):
Private Function GetMachines(ByVal machineFilter As String) As DataTable
Dim SQL As String = "SELECT MachineName from machine WHERE MachineName LIKE #Filter"
Dim result As New DataTable
Using cn As New MySqlConnection(ConnectionString), _
cmd As New MySqlCommand(SQL, cn),
da As New MySqlDataAdapter(cmd)
'Match the MySqlDbType to your actual database column type and length
cmd.Parameters.Add("#Filter", MySqlDbType.VarString, 30).Value = machineFilter
da.Fill(result)
End Using
Return result
End Function
Private Function GetMachines(ByVal machineFilter As String) As DataTable
Return GetMachines("%")
End Function
Query parameters like that are very important, and if you were doing string concatenation to accomplish this kind of thing on your old platform, you were doing very bad things there, too.
Finally, let's get fancy. A lot of the time, you really don't want to load an entire result set into RAM, as is done with a DataTable. That can be bad. Instead, you'd like be able to stream results into memory and only work with one at a time, minimizing RAM use. In these cases, you get to play with a DataReader... but returning a DataReader object from within a Using block (which is important) doesn't work that well. To get around this, we can use functional programming concepts and advanced language features:
Private Iterator Function GetMachines(ByVal machineFilter As String) As IEnumerable(Of String)
Dim SQL As String = "SELECT MachineName from machine WHERE MachineName LIKE #Filter"
Using cn As New MySqlConnection(ConnectionString), _
cmd As New MySqlCommand(SQL, cn)
'Match the MySqlDbType to your actual database column type and length
cmd.Parameters.Add("#Filter", MySqlDbType.VarString, 30).Value = machineFilter
cn.Open()
Using rdr As MySqlDatareader = cmd.ExecuteReader
While rdr.Read()
Dim result As String = rdr("MachineName")
Yield Return result
End While
End Using
End Using
Return result
End Function
Private Function GetMachines() As IEnumerable(Of String)
Return GetMachines("%")
End Function