asked on

Loop through all RadioButtonList Controls and count the totals

Hi
I have an asp.net page (vb) that asks the user 20 questions. The questions are split over 2 sections (10 questions in each section), and each section is contained in its own Panel (both panels are visible). Each Question (ID = Question1, Question2, Question3, etc...) uses the RadioButtonList control and the user can answer the question in 1 of 4 ways (Poor[1], Acceptable[2], Good[3] or Excellent[4]).

Once the user has answered all questions, a submit button is pressed and the answers are emailed to me. This all works fine.

I would like to create an Analysis section (at the end of the email that I recieve) which counts the number of Poor, Acceptable, Good and Excellent answers for each indivdual section and returns the totals for each section to me. For this I need to go through each control and store the given answer, but I don't know how to loop through each control and do this.

I don't want to list each control indivdually eg:

      Dim chosenAnswer as integer = Question1.SelectedItem.Value

      If chosenAnswer = 1 Then
            Section1PoorCount += 1
      ElseIf chosenAnswer = 2 Then
            Section1AcceptableCount += 1
      ElseIf chosenAnswer = 3 Then
            Section1GoodCount += 1
      ElseIf chosenAnswer = 4 Then
            Section1ExcellentCount += 1
      End If

      (and so on for all questions!)

because I might have to expand the number of questions and the code would get too long.

How can I create functionality that loops through all RadioButtonList controls in one section, and counts the totals for each selected entry?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

TimCottee

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See answer

evilmike

ASKER

Thanks Tim, that works great!

As I mentioned in the Question, there is a possiblity that I will need to add more questions, and some of these questions may not be Radiobuttonlist controls. Can the above code be improved to check that the control is a radiobutton before doing the rest?

i.e.

Dim intQuestion As Integer
For intQuestion = 1 To 20
Dim Question As RadioButtonList = Ctype(FindControl("Question" & Ctype(intQuestion,String)),RadioButtonList)
## check Question is a radio button control, and if so, continue with the functionality, otherwise go to next control
....

TimCottee

evilmike,

You can check using:

If FindControl("Question" & CType(intQuestion,String)).GetType Is RadioButtonList Then

Tim

evilmike

ASKER

Tim,

Unfortunately that has produced the following error:

Compiler Error Message: BC30684: 'RadioButtonList' is a type and cannot be used as an expression.

Line 129: If FindControl("Question" & CType(intQuestion,String)).GetType Is RadioButtonList Then

TimCottee

evilmike,

Missed a bit:

If FindControl("Question" & CType(intQuestion,String)).GetType Is GetType(RadioButtonList) Then

Should do the trick.

Tim.

evilmike

ASKER

Hi Tim

Sorry, but i'm getting this error now:

Exception Details: System.InvalidCastException: Specified cast is not valid.

Line 127: Dim Question As RadioButtonList = Ctype(FindControl("Question" & Ctype(intQuestion,String)),RadioButtonList)

Here's the section of code we're working on:

      Dim intQuestion As Integer

      For intQuestion = 1 To 18

      Dim Question As RadioButtonList = Ctype(FindControl("Question" & Ctype(intQuestion,String)),RadioButtonList)

      If FindControl("Question" & CType(intQuestion,String)).GetType Is GetType(RadioButtonList) Then

            Select Case Question.SelectedItem.Value
                  Case 1
                        If intQuestion <=7 Then
                              Section1PoorCount +=1
                        ElseIf intQuestion <=18 Then
                              Section2PoorCount +=1
                        End If
                  Case 2
                        If intQuestion <=7 Then
                              Section1AcceptableCount +=1
                        ElseIf intQuestion <=18 Then
                              Section2AcceptableCount +=1
                        End If
                  Case 3
                        If intQuestion <=7 Then
                              Section1GoodCount +=1
                        ElseIf intQuestion <=18 Then
                              Section2GoodCount +=1
                        End If
                  Case 4
                        If intQuestion <=7 Then
                              Section1ExcellentCount +=1
                        ElseIf intQuestion <=18 Then
                              Section2ExcellentCount +=1
                        End If
                  End Select

            End If
      NEXT

TimCottee

evilmike,
> Dim Question As RadioButtonList = Ctype(FindControl("Question" &
> Ctype(intQuestion,String)),RadioButtonList)
>
> If FindControl("Question" & CType(intQuestion,String)).GetType Is
> GetType(RadioButtonList) Then

Swop these two lines around, you need to check whether it is a radiobuttonlist first before trying to cast the control to a radiobuttonlist.
dioButtonList)

If FindControl("Question" & CType(intQuestion,String)).GetType Is GetType(RadioButtonList) Then

Dim Question As RadioButtonList = Ctype(FindControl("Question" & Ctype(intQuestion,String)),Ra Tim Select Case Question.SelectedItem.Value
Case 1
If intQuestion <=7 Then
Section1PoorCount +=1
ElseIf intQuestion <=18 Then
Section2PoorCount +=1
End If
Case 2
If intQuestion <=7 Then
Section1AcceptableCount +=1
ElseIf intQuestion <=18 Then
Section2AcceptableCount +=1
End If
Case 3
If intQuestion <=7 Then
Section1GoodCount +=1
ElseIf intQuestion <=18 Then
Section2GoodCount +=1
End If
Case 4
If intQuestion <=7 Then
Section1ExcellentCount +=1
ElseIf intQuestion <=18 Then
Section2ExcellentCount +=1
End If
End Select

End If
NEXT

evilmike

ASKER

Unfortunately that has produced another error:

Exception Details: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

If FindControl("Question" & CType(intQuestion,String)).GetType Is GetType(RadioButtonList) Then