JOIN the Strings of different textboxes and again SPLIT - sql

Question

I am new in vb.net, so not much familiar with all VB functions. While working on 1 Windows Application, while taking order we need to save product and its specification like weight, height, width, color, length, material etc.
since every product can have different specification so its is not possible to determine and provide for fields in database.
So, I decided to provide textboxes so user can enter name & value while entering product details. 1 textbox for name & other textbox for value.
like this
Textbox1 = "WEIGHT" TextBox2 = "10" '(Value of Weight)
Textbox3 = "WIDTH" TextBox4 = "5" '(value of Width)
Textbox4 = "LENGTH" TextBox5 = "5" '(Value of Length)
(All these textboxes are dynamically created in Groupbox "GBox1")
Instead of saving product specification in separate column. I want to save these names & values as String e.g. "WEIGHT=10;WIDTH=5;LENGTH=5" in SQL Database(TEXT OR VARCHAR field). Because we dnt want any calculations or search etc. on this. just customer requirements to book order & save in Database for future records.
Then again While calling or editing Product SPLIT the string as separate fields, String Before = Separate & string after = separate, then display all names & their corresponding values in Textboxes (as Displayed while adding) so user can edit and after changes again save as single string value.
After search I found SPLIT & JOIN functions for this purpose.
need some help in using these functions in Loop to merge string from textboxes
for each loop to read all textboxes in Groupbox
Dim ItemList As New ArrayList()
Dim PrDetails As String
For Each Ctrl As Control In GBox1.Controls
If TypeOf Ctrl Is TextBox Then
ItemList.Add(CType(Ctrl, TextBox).Text)
End If
Next
PrDetails = String.Join()
How to perform join on these array list? and again SPLIT this pattern while retrieving from Database.
Also need suggestions regarding this approach or any other way to implement. Thanks.

Answer 1

For this solution to work, you will need to accept the fact that there needs to be some amount of standardization to your solution. TextBox1 and TextBox3 won't work as names, so I used txtName1 and txtValue1 etc. To test this solution, make a new form, put GroupBox1, paste the code in the class and run.
Private nameTextBoxName = "txtName" ' name textbox prefix
Private valueTextBoxName = "txtValue" ' value textbox prefix
Private paramSeparator = ";" ' between sets of parameters
Private nameAndValueSeparator = "=" ' between name and value
Private xOffset = 10 ' for horizontal spacing inside the groupbox
Private yOffset = 20 ' for vertical spacing inside the groupbox
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
' your example data
Dim testString = "WEIGHT=10;WIDTH=5;LENGTH=5"
' set the textboxes
setTextBoxes(testString)
' get the string from the textboxes
Dim result = getTextBoxesString()
End Sub
' call to get a string with all the data from the textboxes
Private Function getTextBoxesString() As String
Dim stringToDatabase = ""
Dim textBoxes = GroupBox1.Controls.OfType(Of Control).
Where(Function(co As Control) TypeOf co Is TextBox).
Select(Of TextBox)(Function(co As Control) CType(co, TextBox))
Dim nameTextBoxes = textBoxes.Where(Function(co As Control) co.Name.Contains(nameTextBoxName))
Dim valueTextBoxes = textBoxes.Where(Function(co As Control) co.Name.Contains(valueTextBoxName))
stringToDatabase = nameTextBoxes.Select(Of String)(
Function(nameTextBox As TextBox)
Dim valueTextBox = valueTextBoxes.
Where(Function(vtb As TextBox) vtb.Name = nameTextBox.Name.Replace(nameTextBoxName, valueTextBoxName)).
First()
Return nameTextBox.Text & nameAndValueSeparator & valueTextBox.Text
End Function).Aggregate(Function(oldValue, newValue) oldValue & paramSeparator & newValue)
Return stringToDatabase
End Function
' call to set the textboxes inside the groupbox based on the data string
Private Sub setTextBoxes(textBoxesString As String)
Dim params = textBoxesString.Split(paramSeparator)
Dim index = 1
GroupBox1.Controls.Clear()
For Each param In params
Dim nameAndValue = param.Split(nameAndValueSeparator)
Dim nameTextBox As New TextBox With
{.Name = nameTextBoxName & index.ToString(),
.Text = nameAndValue(0),
.Location = New Point(xOffset, (index - 1) * .Height + yOffset)}
Dim valueTextBox As New TextBox With
{.Name = valueTextBoxName & index.ToString(),
.Text = nameAndValue(1),
.Location = New Point(.Width + xOffset, (index - 1) * .Height + yOffset)}
GroupBox1.Controls.Add(nameTextBox)
GroupBox1.Controls.Add(valueTextBox)
index += 1
Next
End Sub