Maybe a simple problem.....

I am currently creating a harbour management system.
But I am facing a problem. The system is mainly designed in VB but uses an access database with four tables for the data displayed on the VB forms. On the first menu is an aerial photo of the harbour. The users have to click on individual boats and the information about that boats is retrieved and displayed in text boxes on a form.

The problem is that I need to re-use the form and am not sure how to go about retrieving the data needed to put on the form as it is different for every boat. I have thought about global variables and modules but cannot find any information on them.

Can anyone please help me before I go mentally insane!

Thanks in advance!

Right.

Assuming you can get all of the data out of the database.

Create a user define type. Then create an array of this type. Lets say you have 4 boats.

Place the following into a module. eg. boatModule. This way you will be able to access the data from any form

Code:

---

Priavte Type BoatInfoType
  Name As String
  Cost As Double
End Type.

Public boatInfo(3) As BoatInfoType

---

When you get the data from the database put the information on each boat type into your User Type.

Code:

---

For i = 0 To 3
  boatInfo(i).Name = "Name Of Boat From DataBase Record i"
  boatInfo(i).Cost = "Cost Of Boat From DataBase Record i"
Next i

---

Then when a user click on a boat you should know what number the boat is and do the following.

Code:

---

txtBoatName.Text = boatInfo(boatNum).Name
txtBoatCost.Text = boatInfo(boatNum).Cost

---

Hope this helps.

Using global variables is easy enougth but I'm not sure that's really what you want here

add a moule to your project and just declare your variable using the Public keyword

eg
Public BoatName as String


just a suggestion but...
INstead of havinbg a seperate form to display the data, you could have add a bit on the on the end of your main form

Code:

---

-----------------------------------
| main picture          |        |
|                      | text 1  |
|                      |        |
|                      | text 2  |
|                      |        |
|                      | text 3  |
|                      |        |
|                      | text 4  |
|                      |        |
|                      |        |
|----------------------------------

---

Having just reviewed your question i have realised that i may have gone a little bit over the top with my solution.

You don't really need an array of all the data for every boat, as when they click on a boat you retreive the data from the database according to that boat. So all you need is the Type and a variable of that Type.

I am sticking by my guns about the user defined type though. It keeps everything in one place, much tidier.

Say we have 4 pieces of data for each boat then you would have to have 4 seperate variables.

eg.

BoatName
BoatCost
BoatSize
BoatSpeed

Obviously you still have to have all of these variables in the type, but it makes it easier to manage and you don't have to go off looking for a variable name that you can't remember, because the type ahead will list all of the variables in the Type.

Iain,

I am a beginner at VB so am not very good. What I have in my module at the moment is:

Private Type BoatInfoType
MooringNumber As String
BoatName As String
BoatLength As String
OwnerName As String
OwnerAddress As String
OwnerTelNo As Integer
End Type

Public boatinfo(4) As BoatInfoType

I'm not sure what to do next when the person clicks on the boat. I need to get the information for the specific boat selected from the database and display it on the form but I'm not sure how to.

How are you getting the information from the database?

At the moment I am getting the information from the database with a data control on the form that I want to re-use along with some text boxes.

Make sure the folling code is in a module, not a form

Code:

---

Private Type BoatInfoType
  MooringNumber As String
  BoatName As String
  BoatLength As String
  OwnerName As String
  OwnerAddress As String
  OwnerTelNo As Integer
End Type

Public boatinfo As BoatInfoType

---

When the user clicks on a boat i assume you know which boat it is.

Lets say they click on boat 1.

Get the information from the database for boat 1.

now store that info into "boatInfo"

Code:

---

boatInfo.MooringNumber = database.mooringNumber
boatInfo.BoatName = database.boatName
etc.

---

now bring up the information form and display the data.

Code:

---

  frmBoatInfo.Show

---

Now in the form load event of the information form display the data.

Code:

---

  Private Sub Form_Load()
    Text1.Text = boatInfo.MooringNumber
    Text2.Text = boatInfo.BoatName
    ...
  End Sub

---

Is this helping you at all?

Iain

That is great I understand now.
Thanks for your help!

No Worries