How to Save, Separate, and Write Data from File to Multiple TextBoxes - vb.net

Question

I need to save a bunch (around 600) of TextBox content to a (Preferably) single file, then be able to write that data back to their respective TextBoxes on file open. Essentially I'm making a D&D stat sheet, and I want to save what each player has entered as the [character's name].txt. I already got simple saving and writing down by using a single control and the code:
Dim SaveCharacter As StreamWriter
If txtName.Text = "" Then
MessageBox.Show("In order to save, you must enter a name for your character.", "Error: No Name Entered")
Else
Try
SaveCharacter = File.AppendText("H:\Visual Basic Projects\DAndD-2.5\DAndD-2.5\Saves\" & txtName.Text & ".txt")
SaveCharacter.WriteLine(frmNotes.rtxNotes.Text)
SaveCharacter.Close()
Catch
MessageBox.Show("Error")
End Try
End If
'Next event handler
Dim OpenCharacter As StreamReader
OpenCharacter = File.OpenText("H:\Visual Basic Projects\DAndD-2.5\DAndD-2.5\Saves\Jared.txt")
Do Until OpenCharacter.EndOfStream
frmNotes.rtxNotes.Text = OpenCharacter.ReadToEnd.ToString()
For Each strLine As String In frmNotes.rtxNotes.Text.Split(vbNewLine)
Next
Loop
Is there an easy(ish) way to do what I need, especially in mass (few lines of code) without having to save each TextBox as a different .txt file?
Thanks for the help!

Answer 1

Loop through all the controls and pull out the TextBoxes:
Sub SaveFile(strFilename As String)
Using fs As New System.IO.FileStream(strFilename, IO.FileMode.OpenOrCreate)
Using sr As New System.IO.StreamWriter(fs)
For Each ctl As Control In Me.Controls
If TypeOf ctl Is TextBox Then
Dim txt As TextBox = DirectCast(ctl, TextBox)
sr.WriteLine(txt.Name & ":" & txt.Text)
End If
Next ctl
End Using
End Using
End Sub
Sub Readfile(strfilename As String)
Using fs As New System.IO.FileStream(strfilename, IO.FileMode.Open)
Using sr As New System.IO.StreamReader(fs)
Do Until sr.EndOfStream
Dim strLine As String = sr.ReadLine
Dim colonposition As Integer = strLine.IndexOf(":")
If colonposition > 0 And colonposition < strLine.Length - 1 Then
Dim strTextBoxName As String = strLine.Substring(0, colonposition)
Dim strTextBoxText As String = strLine.Substring(colonposition + 1)
Dim ctl() As Control = Me.Controls.Find(strTextBoxName, False)
If ctl.Length > 0 AndAlso TypeOf ctl(0) Is TextBox Then
DirectCast(ctl(0), TextBox).Text = strTextBoxText
End If
End If
Loop
End Using
End Using
End Sub
The above code only works for textboxes on the form itself. You can rework it to be a recursive function to walk the containers, but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader.

Answer 2

This will write the contents of all your TextBoxes to a file, one line per control:
IO.File.WriteAllLines(filePath, Me.Controls.OfType(Of TextBox).Select(Function(tb) tb.Text))
This will read a file back into those TextBoxes:
Dim textBoxes = Me.Controls.OfType(Of TextBox).ToArray()
Dim lines = IO.File.ReadAllLines(filePath)
For i = 0 To lines.GetUpperBound(0)
textBoxes(i).Text = lines(i)
Next
That assumes that no TextBoxes are multi-line and it also does not validate the file on reading, so you might want to check that the number of lines and TextBoxes matches.