Can I create a property of a property? - vb.net

Question

So I recently grasped the concept of using classes in my Visual Basic programming, and I found it tremendously helpful. In my current project, I have several groups boxes of check boxes (each check box denotes a "Behavior") and in each group box, there is always one check box that has a textbox control instead of a label (to allow the user to specify an "Other" behavior). It is that user-generated label that is giving me trouble...
I created a class called "Behaviors" that basically does the following:
getChecked > This method gets each checked checkbox and adds it to
the BehaviorCollection for a given Form.
behaviorCollection > represents the collection of checked
checkboxes.
getOtherChecked > does the same as "getChecked" except with the
"Other Behavior" checkboxes.
otherBehaviorCollection > represents the collection of checked
"Other" checkboxes.
The issue is that for each checked "Other Behaviors" checkbox, I need to store the value of its corresponding textbox. I would like to set my getOtherChecked() method to do this, so that in the end, I would be able to something like this...
Dim myBoxes as new Behaviors
Dim cBox as Checkbox
Dim cBoxLabel as String
myBoxes.getOtherChecked(myUserForm) 'This would get each checked "Other Behaviors" checkbox object, and also somehow add another property to it called "LinkedTextboxLabel" that would be assigned the value of the corresponding textbox.
cBox = myBoxes.otherBehaviorCollection.item(0) 'Assign a checkbox from my "Other Behaviors" collection to a variable.
cBoxLabel = cBox.LinkedTextboxLabel 'Assign the user-inputted value of the linked textbox to a variable.
So basically how could/should I add a custom-property to a collection item or checkbox?
I thought about just adding the names of the controls to a temporary DataTable or SQL table, so that each row would have the name of a checkbox in one column and its corresponding textbox value in the next, but I am hoping there is a more commonly used and accepted method.
Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

You could add a property for the text associated with the "Other Behaviors" checkbox.
EDIT: You might be trying to generalize your data too far, because the "Other behaviors" is a special case and deserves separate consideration.
If you have a look at what the following code (in a new Windows Forms project) creates, it might give you ideas:
Public Class Form1
''' <summary>
''' A behaviour domain and its characteristics, with one user-defined entry.
''' </summary>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Class BehavioursSectionDescriptor
Property BehaviourTypeName As String
Property BehaviourNames As List(Of String)
Property CustomBehaviours As String
End Class
''' <summary>
''' Return a GroupBox containing CheckBoxes and one Checkbox with a TextBox adjacent to it.
''' </summary>
''' <param name="behaviourSet"></param>
''' <returns></returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Private Function GetBehaviourGroupPanel(behaviourSet As BehavioursSectionDescriptor) As GroupBox
Dim gb As New GroupBox
gb.Text = behaviourSet.BehaviourTypeName
Dim fixedBehaviourNames As List(Of String) = behaviourSet.BehaviourNames
Dim customBehavioursValue As String = behaviourSet.CustomBehaviours
Dim cbVertSeparation As Integer = 4
Dim gbPadding As Integer = 20
Dim cb As New CheckBox
Dim yLoc As Integer = gbPadding
For i = 0 To fixedBehaviourNames.Count - 1
cb = New CheckBox
cb.Location = New Point(gbPadding, yLoc)
cb.Text = fixedBehaviourNames(i)
' you can use the .Tag Object of a Control to store information
cb.Tag = behaviourSet.BehaviourTypeName & "-Cb-" & i.ToString()
gb.Controls.Add(cb)
yLoc += cb.Height + cbVertSeparation
Next
cb = New CheckBox
cb.Text = ""
cb.Location = New Point(gbPadding, yLoc)
cb.Tag = behaviourSet.BehaviourTypeName & "-Custom behaviours"
gb.Controls.Add(cb)
Dim tb As New TextBox
tb.Location = New Point(gbPadding + 18, yLoc)
tb.Width = 100
tb.Text = customBehavioursValue
gb.Controls.Add(tb)
' make sure the textbox appears in front of the checkbox's label area
tb.BringToFront()
gb.Size = New Size(160, yLoc + gbPadding * 2)
Return gb
End Function
Private Function GetTestData() As List(Of BehavioursSectionDescriptor)
Dim bsds = New List(Of BehavioursSectionDescriptor)
bsds.Add(New BehavioursSectionDescriptor With {.BehaviourTypeName = "In water", _
.BehaviourNames = New List(Of String) From {"Floats", "Spins"}, _
.CustomBehaviours = "Paddles"})
bsds.Add(New BehavioursSectionDescriptor With {.BehaviourTypeName = "Under light", _
.BehaviourNames = New List(Of String) From {"Shines", "Glows", "Reflects"}, _
.CustomBehaviours = "Iridesces"})
bsds.Add(New BehavioursSectionDescriptor With {.BehaviourTypeName = "Near food", _
.BehaviourNames = New List(Of String) From {"Sniffs", "Looks"}, _
.CustomBehaviours = ""})
Return bsds
End Function
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Dim bsds As List(Of BehavioursSectionDescriptor) = GetTestData()
Dim gbs As New List(Of GroupBox)
Dim xLoc As Integer = 20
Dim yLoc As Integer = 20
' make some GroupBoxes to present the data input fields
For i = 0 To bsds.Count - 1
Dim gb = GetBehaviourGroupPanel(bsds(i))
gb.Location = New Point(xLoc, yLoc)
gb.Dock = DockStyle.None
yLoc += gb.Height + 30
Me.Controls.Add(gb)
Next
' size the form to fit the content
Me.Size = New Size(240, yLoc + 40)
End Sub
End Class

Answer 2

I know it doesn't answer the question of adding a property to a property, but could you create a class for the Other checkbox and override it's capabilities? Then you could add checkboxes and OtherCheckBoxes to your generic collection? for instance, (by no means complete, but you should get the idea)
EDIT: Changed code to show Shadows
Public Class OptionalCheckbox : Inherits CheckBox
Private mOptionalText As String
Public Shadows Property Text() As String
Get
Return mOptionalText
End Get
Set(value As String)
mOptionalText = value
MyBase.Text = value
End Set
End Property
End Class
For each item, if you were to retrieve .Text, you would either get your textbox value or your checkbox label (if it was a normal checkbox)
And how to utilize in other parts of your code. Again, this is just more of an example. You would still need to work with the textbox that is assigned to the OtherCheckBox to get it to write the text to that, as well as read from that into the .Text property of the Class.
Dim newCheckBoxCollection As New Collection
Dim cBox As New CheckBox
cBox.Text = "Standard Value Here"
'other properties of the checkbox can be modified here
newCheckBoxCollection.Add(cBox)
Dim cOBox As New OptionalCheckbox
cOBox.Text = "Optional Text Here"
'other properties of the checkbox can be modified here
newCheckBoxCollection.Add(cOBox)
For Each cb As CheckBox In newCheckBoxCollection
Me.FlowLayoutPanel1.Controls.Add(cb)
Next

Answer 3

If you are trying to just save the data into something like a DataTable or SQL table the code would be a bit of an overkill. I suggest you use a stream reader/writer and try checking the values that way as the code would be a lot more simple.