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Simple Combobox Load from XML File

Hi gang:

I'm working in VB.NET trying to load an idiot-level combobox from an XML file. You'd think it would be easy.

The list of options to appear was preped in Access and saved to an XML file. So, the format is straight forward and shouldn't have an errors. There was a schema file output at the sametime (although I am not including it as I don't feel its germane.).

The XML file data looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<dataroot xmlns:od="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:officedata" _
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" _
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="MarketCapitalization.xsd" generated="2005-07- _
02T10:13:43">
<MarketCapitalization>
<RecNo>1</RecNo>
<Status>Active</Status>
<Description>Less than $1 Million</Description>
</MarketCapitalization>
<MarketCapitalization>
<RecNo>2</RecNo>
<Status>Active</Status>
<Description>$1 to $4.9 Million</Description>
</MarketCapitalization>
</dataroot>

My research of this site says the code to load these two options should look something like what's below. I am trying to load a combo called cmbMarketCap with two market cap ranges, regardless of what their "Status" value stored in the XML file.

Imports System.XML
Imports System.Data
...

'Clear target combobox to be on safe side
Me.cmbMarketCap.Items.Clear()

'Get dataset
Dim ds As New System.Data.DataSet
ds.ReadXml("..\dat\MarketCapitalization.xml")

'Load into combobox control
Me.cmbMarketCap.DataSource = ds.Tables(0).DefaultView
Me.cmbMarketCap.ValueMember = ds.Tables(0).Columns("RecNo").ToString
Me.cmbMarketCap.DisplayMember = ds.Tables(0).Columns("Description").ToString

The app is reporting an error when it hits the ValueMember assignment line.

It says - "An unhandled exception of type 'System.NullReferenceException' occurred. Additional information: Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

I'm stumped. Any thoughts?

Bob Learned

ValueMember and DisplayMember should be column names:

ValueMember = "RecNo"
DisplayMember = "Description"

Bob

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Fernando Soto

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gbmcneil

ASKER

Hello LearnedOne:

Thanks for responding. With your changes the new code to load the combobox became:

'Load into combobox control
Me.cmbMarketCap.DataSource = ds.Tables(0).DefaultView
Me.cmbMarketCap.ValueMember = "RecNo"
Me.cmbMarketCap.DisplayMember = "Description"

When I ran it, the following error message appeared:

"An unhandled exception of type 'System.ArgumentException' occurred in system.windows.forms.dll

Additional information: Could not bind to the new display member."

I assume that the changes indicated were what you wanted me to do.

gbmcneil

ASKER

Ok FernandoSoto:

You're on.

I changed my combo box load routine to what you suggested (i.e., "Tables(1)"):

'Load into combobox control
Me.cmbMarketCap.DataSource = ds.Tables(1).DefaultView
Me.cmbMarketCap.ValueMember = ds.Tables(1).Columns("RecNo").ToString
Me.cmbMarketCap.DisplayMember = ds.Tables(1).Columns("Description").ToString

Voila. It worked!

No need to respond further, but why the heck would Microsoft have MS Access create two tables in export mode (that is, when exporting to the file extension XML? This doesn't make sense.

Also, if I were to modify the exported XML table so that it read:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<MarketCapitalization>
<RecNo>1</RecNo>
<Status>Active</Status>
<Description>Less than $1 Million</Description>
</MarketCapitalization>
<MarketCapitalization>
<RecNo>2</RecNo>
<Status>Active</Status>
<Description>$1 to $4.9 Million</Description>
</MarketCapitalization>

would this correct the problem such that I could use the original ds.Tables(0) reference? I suspect it would.

Thanks, Feranado.

gbmcneil

ASKER

Excuse me Fernando. Spelled you name incorrectly. My apologies.

Fernando Soto

Hi gbmcneil;

Actually the two lines are needed to meet XML format standards. But what you can do is reference the table number by name like so

Dim table As String = "MarketCapitalization"
Me.cmbMarketCap.DataSource = ds.Tables(table).DefaultView
Me.cmbMarketCap.ValueMember = ds.Tables(table).Columns("RecNo").ToString
Me.cmbMarketCap.DisplayMember = ds.Tables(table).Columns("Description").ToString

Or

Me.cmbMarketCap.DataSource = ds.Tables("MarketCapitalization").DefaultView
Me.cmbMarketCap.ValueMember = ds.Tables("MarketCapitalization").Columns("RecNo").ToString
Me.cmbMarketCap.DisplayMember = ds.Tables("MarketCapitalization").Columns("Description").ToString

I like the first version, less to type

Have a good day
Fernando

gbmcneil

ASKER

Many thanks Fernando. You're a champ. I would not have figured that out. I previously spent 2 days looking for an answer to this issue.

Fernando Soto

I am glad I could help.