VB 2010 array/write array to file - vb.net

Question

I'm close to getting this to work, but currently can't get any output to display in the listbox. I had it working, but needed to move some things around to get the join function to work.
In my program, a user enters input into a textbox and an array is displayed in a listbox based on what they type in. For example, if they type in "a", all foods (in the textfile that is connected to the program) that start with "a" will be displayed.
When there is output, I need to find a way to name this array (which is created based on what the user inputs) and join all of the items in the listbox (example: foods stacked on top of each other in the listbox will be shown at the bottom as a string).
I am posting the code that I have thus far; all of the errors that I'm getting (and potentially my logic errors) are just in the first public class until the end of the first if-next statement:
Public Class frmFoods
Dim foods() As String = IO.File.ReadAllLines("foods.txt")
Private Sub btnDisplay_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnDisplay.Click
Dim Letter As String = txtLetter.Text.ToUpper
Dim smallerarray() As Array
Dim userarray As String
lstOutput.Items.Clear()
If IsNumeric(txtLetter.Text) = False Then
For Each food As String In foods
smallerarray = listfoods(Letter)
lstOutput.Items.Add(Letter)
userarray = Join(smallerarray, ", ")
lstOutput.Items.Add(userarray)
Next
ElseIf IsNumeric(txtLetter.Text) = True Then
MessageBox.Show("Please enter a letter.")
Else
MessageBox.Show("The text box is empty")
End If
End Sub
Function listfoods(ByVal letter As String) As String()
Dim foodarray(foods.Count - 1) As String
Dim counter As Integer = 0
For Each food As String In foods
If food.StartsWith(letter) Then
foodarray(counter) = food
counter += 1
End If
Next
ReDim Preserve foodarray(counter - 1)
Return foodarray
End Function

Answer 1

you need to save the results of the listfoods function in a dictionary or similar and associate it with a key if you want to 'Name' it, although its not clear why you need to do this
As for listing the foods starting with the particular letter, you just need to iterate your result of the function listfoods and separate each one by a comma don't you?
What you have now will create many lists of each food as you are getting the list of food beginning with a particular letter for each food.. As I understand the question you only need to do that once.
Example:
Private Sub btnDisplay_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnDisplay.Click
Dim Letter As String = txtLetter.Text.ToUpper
Dim smallerarray() As Array
Dim userarray As String
lstOutput.Items.Clear()
If IsNumeric(txtLetter.Text) = False Then
'get all items from the file which begin with the letter the user chose
smallerarray = listfoods(Letter)
'add that letter to the output listbox
lstOutput.Items.Add(Letter)
'join all of the elements which begin with that letter
'into a single comma separated string
userarray = Join(smallerarray, ", ")
'add that string to the output
lstOutput.Items.Add(userarray)
ElseIf IsNumeric(txtLetter.Text) = True Then
MessageBox.Show("Please enter a letter.")
Else
MessageBox.Show("The text box is empty")
End If
End Sub
it would probably be useful for you to step through the code and see the values of the variable at each place and compare this with what you expect to see if you can see where the actual value differs from what your logically expect so you can start to identify where the issue is