Subroutine not firing - vb.net

Question

I have the following subroutines:
Private Sub Exceptionquery()
Dim connection As System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection
Dim connectionString As String = "Initial Catalog=mdr;Data Source=xxxxx;uid=xxxxx;password=xxxxx"
Dim _sql As String = "SELECT [Exceptions].Employeenumber,[Exceptions].exceptiondate, [Exceptions].starttime, [exceptions].endtime, [Exceptions].code, datediff(minute, starttime, endtime) as duration INTO scratchpad3 " + _
"FROM [Exceptions]" + _
"where [Exceptions].exceptiondate between #payperiodstartdate and payperiodenddate" + _
"GROUP BY [Exceptions].Employeenumber, [Exceptions].Exceptiondate, [Exceptions].starttime, [exceptions].endtime," + _
"[Exceptions].code, [Exceptions].exceptiondate"
connection = New SqlConnection(connectionString)
connection.Open()
Dim _CMD As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand(_sql, connection)
_CMD.Parameters.AddWithValue("#payperiodstartdate", payperiodstartdate)
_CMD.Parameters.AddWithValue("#payperiodenddate", payperiodenddate)
connection.Close()
End Sub
Public Sub exceptionsButton_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles exceptionsButton.Click
Exceptionquery()
Dim connection As System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection
Dim adapter As System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter = New System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter
Dim connectionString As String = "Initial Catalog=mdr;Data Source=xxxxx;uid=xxxxx;password=xxxxx"
Dim ds As New DataSet
Dim _sql As String = "SELECT * from scratchpad3"
connection = New SqlConnection(connectionString)
connection.Open()
Dim _CMD As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand(_sql, connection)
_CMD.Parameters.AddWithValue("#payperiodstartdate", payperiodstartdate)
_CMD.Parameters.AddWithValue("#payperiodenddate", payperiodenddate)
adapter.SelectCommand = _CMD
Try
adapter.Fill(ds)
If ds Is Nothing OrElse ds.Tables.Count = 0 OrElse ds.Tables(0).Rows.Count = 0 Then
'it's empty
MessageBox.Show("There was no data for this time period. Press Ok to continue", "No Data")
connection.Close()
Exceptions.saveButton.Enabled = False
Exceptions.Show()
Else
connection.Close()
Exceptions.Show()
End If
Catch ex As Exception
MessageBox.Show(ex.ToString)
connection.Close()
End Try
End Sub
and when I press the button:
Public Sub exceptionsButton_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles exceptionsButton.Click
My subroutine Exceptionquery is not being fired. I know that it's probably something simple that I'm overlooking but don't know what it is. Can someone please assist me with this?
Thank you

Answer 1

Are you sure ExceptionQuery() is being run from exceptionsButton_Click? Your example as shown should work. Step through with the debugger and verify that your button event is actually firing.

Answer 2

it should work, check if the event handler exceptionsButton_Click is called at all and see with a breakpoint if the execution gets into it.
P.S. a small very important detail: the way you are handling the connection is not optimal, you can use a using block, something like this:
using (dim connection as New SqlConnection(connectionString)
...
in this way you are sure connection is closed and disposed when running out of scope and you do not need all those connection.close in the if/else and catch which are wrong anyway the way you did it so far, because if the connection has been closed and you enter the catch and try to close it again, there will be another error.