VB.NET Load Form TextBoxes from CSV file

[mikeg71]

Hi All - So this is my first attempt at doing something of this nature. I have a form with many textboxes that acts as a real-time hour by hour schedule. A user will fill in portions of the form based on the time of day shown on the form (see attached). I am saving the form contents about every 30 minutes in the event the form closes etc. I want to create an easy method for loading the data back to the form.

In the CSV file screenshot, all of the green boxes have an associated textbox on the form. The format of the entire CSV is what I am saving out from the form so a Supervisor can view it when needed. The sample code I have here 'seems' like a good start, but I could also be way off on what is actually needed. So how can I load the textboxes efficiently and be able to ignore the empty ones?

Sample Code:

    Public Sub ReadCSVFile()

        Using MyReader As New Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileIO.TextFieldParser(CStr(fpath & "\PROX CLR.csv"))
            MyReader.TextFieldType = FileIO.FieldType.Delimited
            MyReader.SetDelimiters(",")
            Dim currentRow As String()
            While Not MyReader.EndOfData
                Try
                    currentRow = MyReader.ReadFields()
                    Dim currentField As String
                    For Each currentField In currentRow
                        MsgBox(currentField)
                    Next
                Catch ex As Microsoft.VisualBasic.
                    FileIO.MalformedLineException
                    MsgBox("Line " & ex.Message & "is not valid and will be skipped.")
                End Try
            End While
        End Using
    End Sub

Here is what I am using now, but does not load textboxes properly if the data is more than one line.

    Public Sub LoadDatatoForm()

        Dim PickFile As String

        Using dialog As New OpenFileDialog
            dialog.InitialDirectory = fpath
            dialog.Filter = "CSV Files|*.csv"

            If dialog.ShowDialog() = DialogResult.OK Then
                PickFile = dialog.FileName
            End If
        End Using

        Dim tfp As New TextFieldParser(PickFile)
        tfp.Delimiters = New String() {","}
        tfp.TextFieldType = FieldType.Delimited
        tfp.ReadLine() ' skip header

        While tfp.EndOfData = False

            Dim fields = tfp.ReadFields()
            CMB4a.Text = fields(4)
            PLHrs4a.Text = fields(5)
            PLHrsTot4a.Text = fields(6)
            ACHrs4a.Text = fields(7)
            ACHrsTot4a.Text = fields(8)
            VarLaborHrly4a.Text = fields(9)
            VarLaborCum4a.Text = fields(10)
            PLUnitsHrly4a.Text = fields(11)
            PLUnitsTot4a.Text = fields(12)
            ActUnitTot4a.Text = fields(13)
            ActUnitRunTot4a.Text = fields(14)
            VarActHrly4a.Text = fields(15)
            VarActCum4a.Text = fields(16)
            Reason4a.Text = fields(17)

        End While

    End Sub

[jdelano]

When you say you're saving the form to a CSV every 30 minutes, you're saving whatever might be in the textboxes and whatever is in the grid below as well? So, when a text file is selected to restore the form, you need to fill these areas in?

I would traverse the controls on the form and if I encounter a textbox, save the name of the textbox and the contents (if it isn't empty) in the top of the file. Then a line-by-line duplicate of the grid in the bottom of the file.

The code to save would look something like this

    Sub SaveFormContents()

        Dim bkupFile As New IO.StreamWriter("F:\temp\" & Format(Now, "MMddyyHHmmss_backup") & ".txt")
        Dim tb As TextBox

        bkupFile.WriteLine("[TEXTBOXES]")

        For Each c As Control In Me.Controls
            If TypeOf c Is TextBox Then
                tb = c
                If tb.Text.Trim.Length > 0 Then
                    ' the textbox contains data
                    bkupFile.WriteLine(tb.Name & "|" & tb.Text)
                End If
            End If
        Next

        bkupFile.WriteLine("[GRID]")
        For Each c As DataGridViewColumn In DataGridView1.Columns
            bkupFile.Write(c.HeaderText & "|")
        Next
        bkupFile.WriteLine("")

        For Each r As DataGridViewRow In DataGridView1.Rows
            For Each d As DataGridViewTextBoxCell In r.Cells
                bkupFile.Write(d.Value & "|")
            Next
            bkupFile.WriteLine("")
        Next
        bkupFile.Close()

    End Sub

This is my form and the text file I created. I wanted it to be a bit readable, so I added the headings and used "|" instead of "," in case any text contained a comma in it.
https://imgur.com/SYEIeWX

Then you'd reverse this by reading the text file, finding the textbox (me.Controls(name of control)) and placing the text back in it as well as writing the data back to the grid.

[mikeg71]

Thanks jdelano... I will play around with this and see how it works. I appreciate your time and effort on this.

[jdelano]

You're welcome, I hope it helps you out.

[dday9]

It sounds like you're wanting to persist control values when the form closes. This is a simple enough requirement without using a CSV file, so the question I have is: are you only using a CSV file because this is what you're most familiar with or are you using a CSV file so that a user (or anyone) can edit the values outside of the application?