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vb.net 2008 Event loop

Using vb.net 2008 i noticed while debugging that an event such as a rightClickMenuItem.itemClicked runs throught the procedure code multiple times. Upwards of 30 i counted once while debugging and while running. This results in my code generating a null value when it shouldn't and ultimately crashing?? Any suggestions would be most helpful. Below is the code for rightClickMenuStrip.itemClicked. The function getEmployeeNameScheduling returns the text of a control on a tableLayoutPanel at a given row passed in by the rightClickMenuItem Sender.sourceControl. The deleteEntryFromEmployeeTable function deletes an entry in an SQL database which tracks controls on the tableLayoutPanel.

Private Sub rightClickMenuStrip_ItemClicked(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItemClickedEventArgs) Handles rightClickMenuStrip.ItemClicked
 
        Dim count As Integer = 0
        Dim jobLabel As String = Nothing
        Dim controlStartColumn As Integer = 0
        Dim controlStartRow As Integer = 0
        Dim controlRowSpan As Integer = 0
        Dim controlColumnSpan As Integer = 0
 
        Dim sqlDeleteString As String = Nothing
        Dim employeeName As String = Nothing
        Dim entryDate As DateTime = Nothing
        Dim startLocation As Integer = Nothing
        Dim startRow As Integer = 0
 
        If e.ClickedItem.Text = "Delete" Then
                'get information need to delete entry
                startRow = tableLayout.GetRow(sender.sourceControl)
 
                employeeName = getEmployeeNameScheduling(startRow)
                entryDate = sender.sourceControl.tag
                startLocation = tableLayout.GetRow(sender.sourceControl) Mod 6
 
                deleteEntryFromEmployeeTable(employeeName, entryDate, startLocation)
 
                
 
                'delete the control from the table 
                tableLayout.Controls.Remove(sender.sourcecontrol)
        End If
End Sub

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dericstone

It sounds like you are in a recursive situation. To debug this you will need to look at the stack and see who is calling this method, and who is calling that, etc. The other thing to look at is which line in this method is resulting in the recursive call to it. I can't see all your code, but keep in mind that modifications to a table might result in an event getting called -- if the event handler makes changes to the table, this could result in a recursive behavior.

You might be able to fix this by declaring a variable in the class like
bool active = false;
then when you enter the method do this
if (active)
return;
active = true;
and just before the method returns put
active = false;

kooch83

ASKER

To be more elaborate in helping you understand::
- my program basically is a tableLayoutPanel in which a user can drag and drop another control onto it. in this case the control is a button of the class resizable. when the button is created i pass in the rightclickmenu and the tableLayoutpanel which the button is added to. The code i provided above is from the resizable class. The recursive part you mentioned i have pondered before. I have even tried the bool test which you provided above before but on debugging the bool value which i declared in the resizeable class gets reset every time the itemClicked event runs. With that said the function in the above code getEmployeeNameScheduling only returns the text value associated with a name control on the tableLayoutPanel that is related to the button right clicked on. Could this be where the recursion is happening. When i call this function and use the command tableLayout.GetControlFromPosition(0,row).text. Does the compiler then fire the itemClicked event again?? Hope this helps a little

dericstone

There's about a million things that could be wrong. I'm afraid you'll have to do some debugging on the code yourself. Things to check:
- Look at the stack trace when you hit a breakpoint in the method. How does it get called?
- If it were my code, I would add a print to console at every line in the method. Then analyze if any particular line is resulting in a call to the same method.
- Look for some other point of entry like, for example, is some event getting called because the previous control lost focus?

Sorry I can't help more.

pepepaco

try to avoid the program crash validating for null before use objects, does it crash anyway?

instead of going directly to check the Text on e.ClickedItem.Text check if e is not null and then if e.ClickedItem is not null.. etc...
Also try to suspend table layout before doing any modification on it using a code like this:

private void AddButtons()
{
   // Suspend the form layout and add two buttons.
   this.SuspendLayout();
   Button buttonOK = new Button();
   buttonOK.Location = new Point(10, 10);
   buttonOK.Size = new Size(75, 25);
   buttonOK.Text = "OK";
 
   Button buttonCancel = new Button();
   buttonCancel.Location = new Point(90, 10);
   buttonCancel.Size = new Size(75, 25);
   buttonCancel.Text = "Cancel";
 
   this.Controls.AddRange(new Control[]{buttonOK, buttonCancel});
   this.ResumeLayout();
}

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kooch83

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dericstone

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