Adding two textbox values together on Leave

[jmcilhinney]

The first error occurs because the Item property of the DataRow class, which you are invoking in that line, returns an Object. Your app doesn't know until run-time what actual type of object is contained in the column. You need to cast it as a String if you are assigning it to a String variable, which TextBox.Text is:

txtJobName.Text = CStr(dr("Description"))

The second error occurs because the argument you are passing to Split is a String. If you want to pass the dash symbol as a character, do so like this:

Dim arrCharCount() As String = strCharCount.Split("-"c)

You obviously don't have to have Option Strict set to On if you don't want. It can make coding a little more tedious, but it helps to enforce good practice, reduces errors and makes your code more efficient by reducing the load of late binding from implicit conversions.