Adding Selected Item in a Listbox to a Label in Visual Basic - vb.net

Question

In the program I'm writing I'm stuck on one of the last steps which is to display an employee's name and salary selected from a listbox in labels (one for the name and one for the salary), but I cannot figure out how to do this. The employee's names and salaries are read in from a file and are placed in the corresponding listboxes on 3 different forms (two that only list names, and one that only lists salaries). On the last form, the user is supposed to select the name of one of the employees and that person's name is supposed to appear in one label (lblName) and their salary is supposed to appear in another label (lblSalary). The names are listed in the selectable listbox, but when I click on one of them nothing happens.
Here is the code I have so far on the main form:
Option Strict On
Imports System.IO
Public Class Main
Private Sub open_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles open.Click
Dim open As New OpenFileDialog
open.Filter = "text files |*.txt|All Files|*.*"
open.InitialDirectory = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.DesktopDirectory)
If open.ShowDialog() = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then
Dim selectedFileName As String = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(open.FileName)
showNames.Enabled = True
showSalaries.Enabled = True
showEmployee.Enabled = True
End If
Dim container As New List(Of Project9)
Using reader As New StreamReader(open.OpenFile)
While Not reader.EndOfStream
Dim employee As New Project9
employee.Name = reader.ReadLine()
employee.Salary = CDbl(reader.ReadLine())
container.Add(employee)
End While
End Using
For Each item As Project9 In container
Names.lstNames.Items.Add(item.Name)
frmTotal.lstShow.Items.Add(item.Name)
Salaries.lstSalaries.Items.Add(item.Salary)
Next
End Sub
Private Sub ExitToolStripMenuItem_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles ExitToolStripMenuItem.Click
Me.Close()
Names.Close()
Salaries.Close()
frmTotal.Close()
End Sub
Private Sub showNames_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles showNames.Click
Names.Show()
End Sub
Private Sub showSalaries_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles showSalaries.Click
Salaries.Show()
End Sub
Private Sub showEmployee_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles showEmployee.Click
frmTotal.Show()
End Sub
End Class
Public Class Project9
Dim strName As String
Dim dblSalary As Double
Public Property Name As String
Get
Return strName
End Get
Set(value As String)
strName = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property Salary As Double
Get
Return dblSalary
End Get
Set(value As Double)
If dblSalary < 0 Then
dblSalary = 10
End If
dblSalary = value
End Set
End Property
Public Function computeSalary(intMonths As Integer) As Double
Dim dblTotal As Double = dblSalary * intMonths
Return dblTotal
End Function
End Class
And here's the code from the 4th form which is the one displaying the selected item in labels:
Public Class frmTotal
Private Sub btnCalculate_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles btnCalculate.Click
lblName.Text = lstShow.SelectedItem(Name)
Dim intMonths As Integer
intMonths = InputBox("How many months would you like to calculate this employee's salary for?")
End Sub
End Class
Also, how would I be able to make a button visible only after an item has been selected?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

If you leverage the Datasource property of the listbox you can actually fill the listbox with Project9 items and use the DisplayMember property to choose which property you display in the listbox. This has several advantages. Whenever a listbox item is selected it can be cast as an object of type Project9 and you can display whichever properties you want to the labels. Also the selection is tied together across the listboxes so that a selection in one is the same selection in the others. Here's an example of how that might look:
Dim employees As New List(Of Project9)(
{
New Project9 With {.Name = "A", .Salary = 1000},
New Project9 With {.Name = "B", .Salary = 1200},
New Project9 With {.Name = "C", .Salary = 1100}
})
ListBox1.DataSource = employees
ListBox1.DisplayMember = "Name"
ListBox2.DataSource = employees
ListBox2.DisplayMember = "Salary"
Private Sub ListBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles ListBox1.SelectedIndexChanged
Dim selectedemployee = DirectCast(ListBox1.SelectedItem, Project9)
Label1.Text = selectedemployee.Name
Label2.Text = selectedemployee.Salary.ToString
End Sub