Binding Data from a Text File to a Combo Box

[Benemin]

This is the contents of the text file:

9,1,First Street
9,2,Second Street
9,3,Third Street
9,4,Fourth Street

I have a combo box on a form and I want to bind some of the data from the text file, the stuff highlighted in bold, to the combo box. How would I go about doing this?

 

[rcombs4]

There are many ways to do that.

You can simply iterate over each record in the Text File and add the needed data to a List. Then bind that List to the ComboBox.

Or

You can read the TextFile in as a DataTable, then bind that DataTable to the ComboBox.

 

[daniness]

I would say enter this data into a datatable and then bind it to a combobox property, i.e. Display Member.

 

[MattP]

I'm assuming you want the description to be what's shown in the combobox and the number to be the value associated with it.

Here's a quick example of what rcombs4 and daniness were talking about.

        Dim ds As New DataSet
        Dim dt As New DataTable

        With dt.Columns
            .Add("Column1", GetType(Integer))
            .Add("Column2", GetType(Integer))
            .Add("Column3", GetType(String))
        End With

        For Each line In IO.File.ReadAllLines("C:\Temp\cboValues.txt")
            dt.Rows.Add(line.Split(","c))
        Next

        With ComboBox1
            .DataSource = dt
            .DisplayMember = "Column3"
            .ValueMember = "Column2"
            .SelectedIndex = 0
        End With

 

[new2this]

i found that reading if you read the data from a text file and enter the required data into a string array it actually becomes quite easy . you just need to specify which position of the array you need to display

 If File.Exists(textfile) Then

            Dim read As New StreamReader(textfile)

            Dim temp As String
            Dim data As String()
            Try

                While read.Peek <> -1

                    temp = read.ReadLine()

                    data = temp.Split(",")
                    combobox1.Items.Add(data(0))

                End While