How to update a group of combo boxes using Loops - vb.net

Question

I have a form with combo boxes (cmbPort#) to select up to 8 serial ports. I want to first clear the item list for each, populate them with currently available system ports, and then add the option "Off" to each list. Finally, to set each combo box according to defaults saved in string spName(). I created a GroupBox (gBox1) and dragged each cmbPort onto it but I'm not sure how to reference the controls on it. I'm using VB 2015.
Can you help with VB.NET code to use loops ("For Each" or similar) to do this more efficiently?
Private Sub frmProp_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
cmbPort1.Items.Clear()
...
cmbPort8.Items.Clear()
For Each sp As String In My.Computer.Ports.SerialPortNames
cmbPort1.Items.Add(sp)
...
cmbPort8.Items.Add(sp)
Next
cmbPort1.Items.Add("Off")
...
cmbPort8.Items.Add("Off")
cmbPort1.Text = spName(1)
...
cmbPort8.Text = spName(8)
End Sub

Answer 1

Loops are an incredibly useful tool to master. I pitched here some code so you can get the idea, but I was working out of IDE so you might have to apply some fixes to this code to make it work as you want it to.
The main idea is that you shouldn't have to write a line more than once. If you multiply the same operation on several lines of code, you create potential problems for the future. Loops and subs are really helpful to prevent this kind of issues.
Private Sub frmProp_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
'This is for later
Dim cmbIndex As Integer = 1
'You basically do the same operations for every Combobox in your list, son only one loop needed
For Each cmbPort As ComboBox In {cmbPort1, cmbPort2, cmbPort3 [...] cmbPort8} 'this is a way to declare an array
'Clear
cmbPort.Items.Clear()
'Add SerialPortNames
For Each sp As String In My.Computer.Ports.SerialPortNames
cmbPort.Items.Add(sp)
Next
'Add "Off"
cmbPort.Items.Add("Off")
'This last one is a little bit trickier because you want to match numbers
'This is the place where you get errors when something doesn't go as planned
'If you need to keep it inside the loop here's a way to achieve that, but honestly I would't do that
'Instead I would suggest that you take this part out of the loop and do it manually
If spName(cmbIndex) IsNot Nothing Then cmbPort.Text = spName(cmbIndex)
cmbIndex += 1
Next
End Sub
You shouldn't consider efficiency into this equation, as this operation will not be called all the time, only on load. I mean: you should always do things in the best way you can, but optimization is sometimes the enemy of good, readable code.