How can I change the value of an item in a list box while keeping the items display the same? - sql

Question

I have a ListBox that gets populated with a SqlDataReader object and it looks great but the problem I'm running into is I want the data text field to display the data from the date field of the SQL query and have the data value of the ListBox to be from the url field. This is very easy to do if you use the Query Builder function within Visual Studio 2010. You just click on the ListBox and change the properties in the right hand properties column. However, since I didn't use the query builder function and I am coding it by hand, I cannot figure out for the life of me how to change the data text field of the list box to the date field and the data value field to the url field.
The logic behind this is that the user will be able to click on the date of their item, click the button, and it will navigate to the url that is provided in the SQL Database.
Here is the code I am using in the button click action;
Protected Sub SearchButton_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles SearchButton.Click
Dim startDate As Date
Dim endDate As Date
Dim connectionString As String
startDate = TextStartDate.Text
endDate = TextEndDate.Text
connectionString = SqlDataSource1.ConnectionString.ToString
Dim sqlConnection1 As New SqlConnection(connectionString)
Using sqlConnection1
Dim command As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand( _
"SELECT first_name, last_name, date, url FROM tbl_paystubs WHERE date>='" + startDate.ToString + "' AND date<='" + endDate.ToString + "';", _
sqlConnection1)
sqlConnection1.Open()
Dim reader As SqlDataReader = command.ExecuteReader()
While reader.Read
SearchListBox.Items.Add(reader.Item("url"))
End While
reader.Close()
End Using
sqlConnection1.Close()
End Sub
Here are some pictures to help illustrate as well.
EDIT: I think I made this question a little hard to understand so I am going to clarify a little. Inside of the ListBox, the items that are there are now showing the Date when the search is completed, my question is, how can I make the "Open" button open a browser window with the ListBoxItems corresponding URL field?

Answer 1

you could create a little class like this:
internal class LbItem
{
internal string url;
internal string data;
public override string ToString()
{
return this.data;
}
}
and add instances of this class to your ListBox.Items:
listBox1.Items.Add(new LbItem { url = "http:xyz", data = "123" });
the listbox will show the LbItems as returned by the overridden ToString() function ...

Answer 2

I changed the code to the following which answered my question!
Protected Sub SearchButton_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles SearchButton.Click
Dim startDate As Date
Dim endDate As Date
startDate = TextStartDate.Text
endDate = TextEndDate.Text
Dim connectionString As String
startDate = TextStartDate.Text
endDate = TextEndDate.Text
connectionString = SearchDataSource.ConnectionString.ToString
Dim sqlConnection1 As New SqlConnection(connectionString)
Using sqlConnection1
Dim command As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand( _
"SELECT first_name, last_name, date, url FROM tbl_paystubs WHERE date>='" + startDate.ToString + "' AND date<='" + endDate.ToString + "';", _
sqlConnection1)
sqlConnection1.Open()
Dim da As New SqlDataAdapter(command)
Dim ds As New DataSet()
da.Fill(ds)
sqlConnection1.Close()
SearchListBox.DataSource = ds
SearchListBox.DataTextField = "date"
SearchListBox.DataValueField = "url"
SearchListBox.DataBind()
End Using
TextStartDate.Text = ""
TextEndDate.Text = ""
End Sub