Best Way to Read Lisbox Array - sql

Question

I am using a sql query to retrieve data and write to a listbox. However, sometimes an item may have more than one value.
IE:
Data: "Patient Disclosure"
Value: "Encounter"
or
Data: "Patient Disclosure"
Value: "Order"
In the listbox, the line item will show only "Patient Disclosure" but I have the values written in the array. However, I don't want two of the same line item to appear. The "order" value should be the only one showing if it has multiple values. How can I do this?
While reader.Read()
Dim Myitem As New List(Of myitems)
Myitem.Add(New myitems with {.Description = reader(0), .Value = reader(2)})
' If reader(2) = "Order" Then
' listBox1.Items.Add(Myitem.ToArray)
' Else
' listBox1.Items.Add(reader(0))
' End If
listBox1.Items.AddRange(Myitem.ToArray)
End While

Answer 1

You can eliminate duplicates with
listBox1.Items.AddRange(Myitem.Distinct().ToArray())
However, I am not sure what you are asking. I good thing to do is to create a class that holds your data, instead of working directly with data readers, as you have done already. Give it a more descriptive name than myitems. As developers we are constantly working with many kinds of "items".
Public Class Patient // Or whatever the items are supposed to represent.
Public Property Description As String
Public Property Value As String
Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
Return String.Format("Description = {0}, Value = {1}", Description, Value)
End Function
End Class
If you then add Patient objects to a ListBox, the ListBox will automatically use ToString to display the items.
You can also override Equals and GetHashCode in order to influence the way two objects are compared. The Distinct method will use these two methods in order to do its job. See: Implementing the Equals Method