Question

Automatically link two or more listBoxes on a Windows Form - C# 2005

Asked by: Saxitalis

Hello Experts,

I am currently populating three Lisboxes from database fields like this:

               //*********GETTING DATA FROM DB and FILLING LISTBOXES
(Connection string code not shown)                
dataAdapter = new SqlDataAdapter();
                dataSet = new DataSet();
                dataAdapter.SelectCommand = cmd;
               
                dataAdapter.Fill(dataSet, "dbFields");
                dataTable = dataSet.Tables[0];
                       
                SqlDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();

                   //fill first listbox
                    lbOne.Items.Clear();
                    foreach ( DataRow dataRowOne in dataTable.Rows)
                    {
                       
                        lbOne.Items.Add(dataRow["fldOne"]);
                       
                    }

                   //fill second listbox
                    lbTwo.Items.Clear();
                    foreach (DataRow dataRowTwo in dataTable.Rows)
                    {


                        lbTwo.Items.Add(dataRowTwo["fldTwo"]);
                    }

                   //fill third listbox
                   lbThree.Items.Clear();
                    foreach (DataRow dataRowThree in dataTable.Rows)
                    {


                        lbThree.Items.Add(dataRowSpecialArea["fldThree"]);
                    }
                   reader.Close();
                   /*********END GETTING DATA FROM DB and FILLING LISTBOXES

I then have this code to select each possible combination of fields represented in the three listboxes based on database records:
//Code is called when user clicks on an item in lbOne
DataRow selectedRow = dataTable.Rows[lbTwo.SelectedIndex];
            lbOne.Text = selectedRow["fieldOne"].ToString();
            lbThree.Text = selectedRow["fieldThree"].ToString();

For Example: If there is even one record in the database that looks like this:
  rec    fieldOne   fieldTwo   fieldThree
     1           A                 C               V
     2           A                 C               B
     3           A                 D               B

The values of all three listboxes selected when the user clicks on the first item (A of Rec1) in lbOne would be:
lbOne = A
lbTwo = C
lbThree = V

When the second itemin lbOne is selected (A of Rec 2) in lbOne :
lbOne = A
lbTwo = C
lbThree = B

And So on...

Now I have the following code to select each item in lbOne automatically and populate a variable based on each value in lbOne  like this:
double x = 0;
            foreach (object obj in lbOne.Items)
             {
                x = Convert.ToDouble(obj);
             }
This works fine to extract ech item in lbOne but...

Problem: Does anyone know how to select the other listBox values in the for loop to get each possible combination from the database without the user having to click on each item in lbOne (like I have shown above)  to select the items in lbTwo and lbThree???


       

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Asked On
2008-05-28 at 09:20:19ID23438625
Topics

Microsoft Visual C#.Net

,

C# Programming Language

,

Visual Studio

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
8

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Answers

 

by: Nash2334Posted on 2008-05-28 at 10:39:31ID: 21662500

You don't need to jump through so many hoops to populate your listboxes - the ListBox has a DisplayMember and a ValueMember property that you can specify.  You can set the three listboxes to have the same datasource and different DisplayMembers.  If the Selection Mode of the ListBoxes is set to "One", everything else will get taken care of for you by virtue of databinding.

In the following example, three listboxes are bound to the same datatable.  Selecting an item in any of three automatically selects its partner values by virtue of databinding.

DataTable dt = new DataTable();
dt.Columns.Add("Col1");
dt.Columns.Add("Col2");
dt.Columns.Add("Col3");
 
dt.BeginLoadData();
DataRow dr = dt.NewRow();
 
// Add first row
dr.BeginEdit();
dr[0] = "A";
dr[1] = "C";
dr[2] = "V";
dr.EndEdit();
dt.Rows.Add(dr);
 
// Add second row
dr = dt.NewRow();
dr.BeginEdit();
dr[0] = "A";
dr[1] = "C";
dr[2] = "B";
dt.Rows.Add(dr);
 
// Add third row
dr = dt.NewRow();
dr.BeginEdit();
dr[0] = "A";
dr[1] = "D";
dr[2] = "B";
dt.Rows.Add(dr);
 
dt.EndLoadData();
 
listBox1.DisplayMember = "Col1";
listBox1.ValueMember = "Col1";
listBox1.DataSource = dt;
 
listBox2.DisplayMember = "Col2";
listBox2.ValueMember = "Col2";
listBox2.DataSource = dt;
 
listBox3.DisplayMember = "Col3";
listBox3.ValueMember = "Col3";
listBox3.DataSource = dt;

                                              
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by: SaxitalisPosted on 2008-05-28 at 11:14:47ID: 21662801

Thanks for showing me a cleaner way to bind the data between listboxes.

I probably wasn't very clear but what I need to do is select the value in one of the list boxes (say lbOne) from within the for loop (Not by clicking on an item in the listbox on Windows form). Each item in lbOne should be selected in turn as the for loop iterates through lbOne's list.

Is there a way to select an item in lbOne inside this for loop so that the other two listboxes will select appropriate items based on data binding??

            double x = 0;
            foreach (object obj in lbOne.Items)
             {
                x = Convert.ToDouble(obj);
               //select appropriate items in lbTwo and lbThree based on databinding with lbOne?????
             }

Thanks!


 

by: Nash2334Posted on 2008-05-28 at 11:19:56ID: 21662865

All you need to do is set the SelectedItem or SelectedIndex of lbOne, the other two will select automatically since they are bound to the same DataSource.

lbOne.SelectedIndex = 1;

 

by: SaxitalisPosted on 2008-05-28 at 14:55:23ID: 21664700

OK - I am still not getting this...

My list boxes are populating but I am not abele to increment list values of lbOne to iterate through the list.
I tried this:


                string strOne = "";
                string strTwo= "";
                string strThree= "";

                lbOne.SelectedIndex = 1;
                foreach (object obj in One.Items);
                {

                    strOne = lbOne.Text;
                    strTwo = lbTwo.Text;
                    strThree = lbThree.Text;

                    lbOne.SelectedIndex += lbOne.SelectedIndex;
               
                    CallMethods(); //calls methods to perform actions on the values of the 3 list boxes on every
                                            //iteration
                                       
                }//end foreach

results: Only one for each list box shows. There is no iteration

Thanks!

 

by: Nash2334Posted on 2008-05-29 at 07:00:02ID: 21669151

Is this a Winforms or an ASP.NET ListBox?

 

by: SaxitalisPosted on 2008-05-29 at 07:04:02ID: 21669181

It is a WinForms List box -

Also I am using System.Web.UI.WebControls; as the reference but am not sure if that is correct...

Thanks!

 

by: SaxitalisPosted on 2008-07-22 at 15:08:47ID: 22064176

I learned about this topic even hough my specific question was not completely answered - Thanks

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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