manipulating textbox variables in calculations - vb.net

Question

I have some code where I am trying to use variables in a tabpage. The first tabpage only has one text box for user entry (miles.text) and a button to do a calculation: traveltime = mileage/speed. The value from miles.text is stored into a variable called mileage while the speed used is stored in a variable called speed (me.speedtextbox.text).
Ordinarily, doing val(variable.text) works like a charm and it's not doing it in this case. When the user enters 100 for the mileage, it should be divided by 65 (the number in the database) and, therefore, the answer should be 1.53 hours. In my case, I'm getting "infinity" and whenever I do anything else with the variable, I get "when casting from a number, the value must be a number less than infinity." But it is! It's only 65 and I double-checked that the dataset said that too, which it does. Not sure why I am getting this error...thank you!
Public Class Form1
Private Property Traveltime As Decimal
Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
'TODO: This line of code loads data into the 'fooDataSet.testdata' table. You can move, or remove it, as needed.
Me.TestdataTableAdapter.Fill(Me.foouDataSet.testdata)
End Sub
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim mileage As Integer
Dim speed As Integer
mileage = Val(miles.Text)
speed = Val(Me.SpeedTextBox.Text)
traveltime = mileage / speed
txttraveltime.text = Traveltime.ToString
End Sub
Private Sub txtrate_TextChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles txttraveltime.TextChanged
End Sub
End Class
So I did a test program where it did only one thing and that was to simply read one data column in a one row database and store it to a local variable and multiply it by 1.60 except now I am getting "reference to a non-shared member requires an object reference" and it doesn't seem to recognize Me.Speed when I declare it. What am I doing wrong?
Public Class Form1
Dim Speed As Object
Dim Me.Speed As New Speed
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Me.Speed = CDec(fooDataSet.testdataRow.Item("speed"))*1.60
Speedtextbox.text = Me.Speed.tostring
End Sub
Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
'TODO: This line of code loads data into the 'fooDataSet.testdata' table. You can move, or remove it, as needed.
Me.TestdataTableAdapter.Fill(Me.fooDataSet.testdata)
End Sub
End Class

Answer 1

Before you do anything else, you should do the following:
Open the project's properties (right-click on the Project, then select Properties)
Click on the Compile tab (left-hand side)
Select All Configurations from the dropdown menu
Select On from the Option Explicit menu.
Select On from the Option Strict menu.
Save the project
This will more than likely cause a lot of errors to be displayed, but fixing these errors will substantially improve your application's health.
Now, that that is done, the following code will fix the problems in the button click:
Dim mileage As Integer
Dim speed As Integer
If IsNumeric(Me.Miles.Text) Then
mileage = CInt(Me.Miles.Text)
End If
If IsNumeric(Me.SpeedTextBox.Text) Then
speed = CInt(Me.SpeedTextBox.Text)
End If
If speed <> 0 Then
Traveltime = CDec(mileage / speed)
Else
Traveltime = 0
End If
txtTravelTime.Text = Traveltime.ToString
However, the code as you have it will produce correct results, so there must be something else amiss. Try the above first and if there are still issues, you can update your question with the details.

Answer 2

I would implement the calculation in a separate class and then use object-binding. Here is how the travel time calculator would look like:
Imports System.ComponentModel
Public Class TraveltimeCalculator
Implements INotifyPropertyChanged
Private _miles As Double
Public Property Miles() As Double
Get
Return _miles
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Double)
If _miles <> value Then
_miles = value
OnPropertyChanged("Miles")
OnPropertyChanged("Traveltime")
End If
End Set
End Property
Private _speed As Double
Public Property Speed() As Double
Get
Return _speed
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Double)
If _speed <> value Then
_speed = value
OnPropertyChanged("Speed")
OnPropertyChanged("Traveltime")
End If
End Set
End Property
Public ReadOnly Property Traveltime() As Double
Get
Return If(_speed = 0.0, 0.0, _miles / _speed)
End Get
End Property
#Region "INotifyPropertyChanged Members"
Public Event PropertyChanged As PropertyChangedEventHandler _
Implements INotifyPropertyChanged.PropertyChanged
Private Sub OnPropertyChanged(ByVal propertyName As String)
RaiseEvent PropertyChanged(Me, New PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName))
End Sub
#End Region
End Class
In Visual Studio, add a data source in the Data Sources panel. Choose "Object" and then select the TraveltimeCalculator (it has to be compiled, before you can do that). Now you can drag the speed, mileage and travel time fields from the data sources panel to your form. All the wire-up will happen automatically. VS automatically inserts a BindingSource and a navigator into your form. You will not need the navigator and can safely remove it. The only thing you still have to do is to add the following code in the form load event handler or in the form constructor:
Private Sub frmTravelTime_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
TraveltimeCalculatorBindingSource.DataSource = New TraveltimeCalculator()
End Sub
When you enter speeds and mileages, the travel time textbox will automatically be updated. Non-numeric entries will automatically be rejected and all the text-number conversions happen automatically.

Answer 3

I discovered what the problem was.
To store a field from a one-line database to a local variable for calculations, apparently it has to happen in the form1_load event, after the dataadapter fill statement, like so:
Me.TestdataTableAdapter.Fill(Me.foouDataSet.testdata)
speed = Me.fooDataSet.testdata(0).speed
and just DIM speed as Decimal after the Public Class line. The same could be done for any other field you want to work with in a similar kind of single datarow:
yourvarname = Me.yourdatasetname.yourtablename(0).the_database_field_you_want_to_fetch
(Wow! Did I just write something textbooky? LOL)
Then, after the button click, to do a calculation, it is:
traveltime = CDec(miles.Text/ speed)
txttraveltime.Text = traveltime.ToString
making sure to DIM traveltime as Decimal.
Works! The problem was the (0) to indicate row 0 (because it's only one row.) Thank you everyone for your help, especially Competent_Tech. I learned something and I'm happy that I could get back to you guys and share.