[RESOLVED] How to handle a VERY simple data problem

[SlumberMachine]

I need to make a program that can open and read some simple data and make an association.

So for example the data would be something like this:

Name Phone number
Bob 408-911-9111
...
...

I want to be able only show the name in a listbox and once the user clicks on the name the phone number shows in a message box.

I handled it using a case statement, but unfortunately the case statement is getting WAY too big since there is about 30 items in the list (and there will be more). How can I do this using either an XML file or reading off a text file or something?

I don't have any DB programs btw.

Thanks

[.paul.]

use an array (declare public at form level).
as you add the names to the list, use redim preserve to resize the array, then store the phone number in the new array index.
when you select a name in the list, the selectedindex will be the array index that holds the phone number

[SlumberMachine]

right on, thanks, I will try that.

[Hack]

Why not just store them in a database that can grow as you need it to grow.

The code you use would never have to be touched when you wanted to add new records or remove existing ones.

[stanav]

Or at least if you're to use a text based file, choose a well formatted format such as XML or CSV... That way, you can work with the file a lot easier using the tools readily available in the framework.

[SlumberMachine]

Well I figured out how to do it with an array, but now I want to make a txt or XML file and use that to store the data and load it into the array. How would I go about setting the data from an opened file to an array?

[SlumberMachine]

Here is what I have so far:

    Structure People
        Dim Name As String
        Dim Number As String

    End Structure

 Dim People(5) As People

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Dim filename As String = "C:\Documents and Settings\Blah\Desktop\Persons.txt"
        Dim fields As String()
        Dim delimiter As String = ">"
        Using parser As New TextFieldParser(filename)
            parser.SetDelimiters(delimiter)
            While Not parser.EndOfData
                fields = parser.ReadFields()
'not sure what to do here
               
            End While
        End Using

        Dim i As Integer
        For i = 0 To 2
            ListBox1.Items.Add(People(i).Name)
        Next

    End Sub
   Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click, ListBox1.DoubleClick
        Dim SelectedItem = ListBox1.SelectedIndex

        MsgBox(People(SelectedItem).Number)


    End Sub

[stanav]

If you want to go with XML (an excellent choice over the plain text file), easiest way is to use a data table... Think of a data table as a 2-d array or an excel sheet... If has rows and columns. So supposed you want to store a person's contact info on a datatable, you'd create a datatable consist of these columns: FirstName, LastName, PhoneNumber.... (whatever info you want to store), and each row in this table will be a record. This is the code to create such a datatable

Dim contactTable As New Data.DataTable()
With contactTable.Columns
       .Add("FirstName", GetType(String))
       .Add("LastName", GetType(String))
       .Add("PhoneNumber", GetType(String))
End With

Now to add a row to this datatable, you do this

Dim row As Data.DataRow = contactTable.NewRow()
row("FirstName") = "Bob"
row("LastName") = "Blair"
row("PhoneNumber") = "123-456-7890"
contactTable.Rows.Add(row)

To write this table to an XML file, you simply do

contactTable.WriteXml("c:\my folder\myFile.xml")

To read this xml file back into a datatable, you simply do

Dim table As New DataTabble
table.ReadXml("c:\my folder\myFile.xml")

That's will cover the most parts that you'll need.

[.paul.]

thats 1 way.
to keep it simple i'd use a streamreader/streamwriter with a text file and an array

[SlumberMachine]

Thanks guys!

I went the XML route and created a datagrid view item and use it to load and save an xml file with the items in it. It works great! Now to figure out how to know what was selected in the datagridview control.