Checkedlistbox in a windows application

I believe .Net has a Settings.Settings file that you can save you information to. You need to set up the file with keys and values and then you can make it so the code can modify this file. It is essentially a configuration file. Then on the load of the form, you can check this file and see which values are set and pre-select those checkboxes.

And how would I do that? Sorry, I am new to vb.net

You can save settings in My.Settings, and then retrieve them later:

1) Double-click on the 'My Project' entry in the Solution Explorer

2) Select the 'Settings' tab.

3) Add a 'User' setting as a Boolean type with the value = False

4) Examples:

  Add a setting called 'Checked1'

  ' Retrieve the value
  Dim wasChecked As Boolean = My.Settings.Checked1

  ' Change and save the value
    My.Settings.Checked1 = True
    My.Settings.Save()

Bob

Bob,

How would I apply that to each index within the checkedlistbox?

Would I loop through the indices?

Yeah, you would have to loop through your indexes:

foreach checkbox In MyCheckboxObject

   'check the setting for this checkbox and check if necessary

next

It is giving me the error " 'CheckBox' is a type and cannot be used as an expression"

Any ideas what I need to do?

How many items do you have in the CheckedListBox?  If there aren't too many, you could just do something like this:

    CheckedListBox1.SetItemChecked(0, My.Settings.Checked1)
    CheckedListBox1.SetItemChecked(1, My.Settings.Checked2)
    ...

Bob

There are about 50 of them.

then change it to:

foreach checkboxObj In MyCheckboxListObject

How do I store all 50 values in My.Settings using this format:

CheckedListBox1.SetItemChecked(0, My.Settings.Checked1)
CheckedListBox1.SetItemChecked(1, My.Settings.Checked2)
etc.

Do I have to set up settings for each item?

Thanks, that would work perfect but the user is going to have the capability to add or remove items from the checked listbox. Is there anyway to do this?

My solution should work for any number of checkboxes.

Sure, I used a StringBuilder to build a string of 1's and 0's as flags to indicate the state of each item's checked state.

Bob

Bob,

So for my example, if the settings is set up with 50 zeros, the user goes in and adds 5 items, will your solution still work even though the new string will be 55 characters long?

Ok, now you've done it!!  *GRIN*

Can they remove items?

Bob

No, they cannot

Will items only be added to the end of the list?  

Here's the problem--if they are added somewhere in the middle, then the saved values won't match.  

If the new items can only be added to the end, then you would still match up with the existing items, and the string would just grow longer to accomodate the new items.

Bob

I set up the CheckedListBox to be sorted alphabetically. What if I set it up so that if the user adds an item, it rebuilds the string, and therefore will match. Will that work?

Suggestion #3 (this may get bulky, but who cares!!!)

1) Create a string with name+value pairs.

2) Set values from the setting:
 
    For Each setting As String In My.Settings.CheckedListBoxSettings.Split(",")
      Dim valueList() As String = setting.Split("=")
      Dim name As String = valueList(0)
      Dim value As String = valueList(1)

      Dim index As Integer = CheckedListBox1.Items.IndexOf(name)

      If index <> -1 Then
        CheckedListBox1.SetItemChecked(index, (value = "1"))
      End If
    Next setting

3) Create and save the string:

    Dim sb As New StringBuilder()
    For index As Integer = 0 To CheckedListBox1.Items.Count - 1
      sb.Append(CheckedListBox1.Items(index) & "=")
      Dim ch As Char = IIf(CheckedListBox1.GetItemChecked(index), "1"c, "0"c)
      sb.Append(ch & ",")
    Next index

    My.Settings.CheckedListBoxSettings = sb.ToString().TrimEnd(",")
    My.Settings.Save()

4) Initially the string won't have any value, and that should be OK.

Bob