Remove empty records?[Resolved]

[Pirate]

How can I omit these spaces(empty strings) while looping through all data in specific column (when I load them , they are there in the dataset) have a look at the attachted image to have better idea of what I'm talking about , if not clear plz let me know !

Thanks

[nswan]

are they empty strings or null values?

if they are empty strings do a strComp(string1, "") = 0 then don't do anything, or if it's null do if DBnull(string1) then don't do anything.

[Pirate]

Yeah they are null values , I do know how to use DBNull.Value . How would you apply it here ?

[nswan]

not sure if i completely understand what you are doing but wouldn't it be better to just have 2 columns.
1 is the overall name, and the second the title e.g.

java : widgets
java : buttons
xml : stylesheets
vb : forms
java : stuff

then you can query the table putting java, xml, or vb in the where part.

[Pirate]

I wanted it that way if possible . I'm sure it's but I can't go around it thought !

[nswan]

i mean that's how you need to design the database table. I pressume that's where you are getting the data from.

column1 : MainGouping
column2 : Title

design the table like that.

[Pirate]

If I changed that then I would have to change lots of lines and rebuilding similar structure as you suggested doesn't neccessarily fits my situation thanks though !

[Edneeis]

Its the DB structure that creates the blank lines as nswan said. You can only delete a row at a time which then would remove the items that aren't blank in the same row as well. So there is no way without changing the structure as nswan suggested.

[nswan]

you could pull out an entire row though and then check for null values on each item in the datarow. Just trying to figure out how to check for nulls at the mo!

[Edneeis]

But how would you put the data back in for the rows that have half null and half not? To check for Null you can just use [fieldname] Is Null

[Pirate]

nswan , that would take more time and won't help I guess .

I can remove them from combobox (I did actually but I don't want even to include them in the dataset )
This is how I populate a combobox with all records in a column , How can I use Is Null operator in this case Edneeis ?

Public Shared Sub ShowRecords(ByVal ComBox As ComboBox, ByVal TableStr As String, ByVal ColumnStr As String)
        OpenDB()
 
        Dim adoTables As New OleDb.OleDbCommand("Select * From " & TableStr & "", MyConnection)
        Dim adoReader As OleDb.OleDbDataReader
        Dim strTable As String
 
        ComBox.Items.Clear()
        Try
            adoReader = adoTables.ExecuteReader()
            While (adoReader.Read)
                strTable = adoReader.Item(ColumnStr).ToString
                ComBox.Items.Add(strTable)
            End While
        Catch myException As Exception
            MessageBox.Show(myException.ToString())
        Finally
            adoReader.Close()
            adoReader = Nothing
            adoTables = Nothing
        End Try
    End Sub

[Edneeis]

So you are making a seperate trip to the db for each combo?

If thats the case then you can weed out the Nulls in the query:

Dim adoTables As New OleDb.OleDbCommand("Select " & ColumnStr & " From " & TableStr & " WHERE Not " & ColumnStr & " Is Null", MyConnection)

This will also reduce traffic since you only need the one column there is no need to return all of them. Hence the Select specifies the column name instead of * for all of them.

[Pirate]

I was sure you will beat it , that's exactly what I need .
It Worked like a charm ! Thank you Edneeis