Develop Reference

Add the contents of a DataGridView to an existing XML file

So I finally was able to create a XML and change it as I want but now I needed to add the contents of a DataGridView to it. I thought that's quite easy as I saw the options to place it into a DataSet and use XmlWrite, but that was a mistake of me. Note that I'm still trying to learn C# so probably I make a silly mistake here. It is still not working maybe someone is willing to point me out what I am doing wrong?
I actually have two issues with this:
It ForEach loop doesn't get the existing column names
It doesn't add the table and its contents to the XML file
private void CreateClientFile()
{
string filename;
filename = Company + "_" + SiteName + ".xml";
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
XmlElement root = doc.CreateElement("CompanyProfile");
doc.AppendChild(root);
//Save document on Harddisk
doc.Save(#"C:\Users\NLRAGIL\Documents\10 - VibroManager\" + filename);
//Need to save first and than load again????
//Load document into program
doc.Load(#"C:\Users\NLRAGIL\Documents\10 - VibroManager\" + filename);
XmlNode main = doc.SelectSingleNode("CompanyProfile");
//Create Company name element
XmlElement companyname = doc.CreateElement("CompanyName");
companyname.InnerText = CompanyName;
main.AppendChild(companyname);
//Create sitename element
XmlElement sitename = doc.CreateElement("Sitename");
sitename.InnerText = SiteName;
main.AppendChild(sitename);
//Create IMO element
XmlElement imo = doc.CreateElement("IMO");
imo.InnerText = IMO;
main.AppendChild(imo);
DataTable dt = new DataTable();
for (int i = 0; i < dataGridView1.Columns.Count; i++)
{
dt.Columns.Add("column" + i.ToString());
}
foreach (DataGridViewRow row in dataGridView1.Rows)
{
DataRow dr = dt.NewRow();
for (int j = 0; j < dataGridView1.Columns.Count; j++)
{
dr["column" + j.ToString()] = row.Cells[j].Value ;
}
dt.Rows.Add(dr);
}
//Create DataSet and add the datatable
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
ds.Tables.Add(dt);
//Give the file name for where to write to.
ds.WriteXml(#"C:\Users\NLRAGIL\Documents\10 - VibroManager\" + filename);
//Show example for debugging
doc.Save(#"C:\Users\NLRAGIL\Documents\10 - VibroManager\" + filename);
System.Console.WriteLine(doc.InnerXml);
}
EXTRA CLARIFICATION:
The form I have looks as below:
The Textbox in the groupbox "Client Information" I'm able to save in a XML file. By altering the value of the numeric control I can express how much machine the particular client has. And the DataGridView gets more or less rows. But the information from the DataGridView I'm unable to append to the created XML file.
So the information from "Machine Name", "Serial No" etc I can't add to the XML file.
This is what I wanted to do, so later on in the program I can add certain measurements of each machine to it and store also in the same file.
But whatever I do my XML file looks like this:
I hope I explained it better now sorry for the confusion

Your question is Add the contents of a DataGridView to an existing XML file and you say your first issue is that your ForNext loop is not giving you the column names and your second issue is that the code fails to serialize the record to an XML file on disk. These two goals can be simplified by using Data Binding. This decouples your data from the view, making it easier to process. I would like to give you some insight if you wanted to try it out using the CompanyProfile in your code.
First, a CompanyProfile class declares the intended public properties:
public class CompanyProfile
{
public string CompanyName { get; set; }
public string SiteName { get; set; }
public string IMO { get; set; } = "Some Value";
}
Next, in your MainForm class a BindingList<CompanyProfile> is declared and attached to the DataGridView like this:
BindingList<CompanyProfile> DataSource = new BindingList<CompanyProfile>();
protected override void OnHandleCreated(EventArgs e)
{
base.OnHandleCreated(e);
if(!DesignMode)
{
// Attach the data source to the view. Now changes to source records refresh in the view.
dataGridView1.DataSource = this.DataSource;
// Adding one or more records will generate the columns.
DataSource.Add(new CompanyProfile { CompanyName = "Linear Technology", SiteName = "Colorado Design Center"});
DataSource.Add(new CompanyProfile { CompanyName = "Analog Devices", SiteName = "1-1-2"});
// Use string indexer to get a column
dataGridView1.Columns[nameof(CompanyProfile.CompanyName)].AutoSizeMode = dataGridViewAutoSizeColumnMode.Fill;
dataGridView1.Columns[nameof(CompanyProfile.SiteName)].AutoSizeMode = DataGridViewAutoSizeColumnMode.Fill;
DataGridView1.AllowUserToAddRows = false;
}
}
The resulting DataGridView now looks like this:
This method makes a single file from a CompanyProfile record using XmlSerializer (but this is just one approach - and you could also serialize the entire list at one time if you choose).
private void CreateClientFile(CompanyProfile companyProfile, string fileName)
{
System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer x = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(CompanyProfile));
using (var writer = new StreamWriter(fileName))
{
x.Serialize(writer, companyProfile);
}
// Open the file to view the result
Process.Start("notepad.exe", fileName);
}
Now, iterate a ForNext loop on the DataSource not the DataGridView. You no longer need to worry about columns because you have the bound properties instead.
private void btnSerialize_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var appData = Path.Combine(
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData),
"datagridview_to_xml");
Directory.CreateDirectory(appData);
// Iterate the datasource list, not the DataGridView.
foreach (CompanyProfile companyProfile in DataSource)
{
CreateClientFile(
companyProfile,
fileName: Path.Combine(appData,
$"{companyProfile.CompanyName}_{companyProfile.SiteName}.xml")
);
}
}
Clicking the [Serialize] button reveals the two files.

File.Exists(Path) always return false when get 'string (Path)' from text file

I write codes to receive the path of a text file and store it in a string variable that I declare in public.
Then I want to know if the file exists or not by using
System.IO.File.Exists(pathoffile)
But it always returns false even though there is a file.
And then when I try to add the string path directly like this
public string propertyfile = #"C:\Users\PFA Wongsawat\Desktop\part_no_and_path_list.txt"
The function
System.IO.File.Exists(pathoffile)
return true
I already check the receive path(string) that I read from the text file. By cutting off "\n" and "\r" and using trim() too.But it still returns false.
Have I missed something? What difference between these two?. I'm too new to this c#. I'm very bad at this sorry in advance.
Here are my codes
public string pathfromread, partnumber, pathfile, portname, partnofromserial,propertypathfile; //Declare Variables
public string propertyfile = #"C:\Users\PFA Wongsawat\Desktop\Properties.txt";
public string pathoffile ;
public string backuppath ;
public string pdffolderpath ;
private void propertyget()
{
if (File.Exists(propertyfile))
{
StreamReader readpropertyfile = new StreamReader(propertyfile);
string readproperty;
while ((readproperty = readpropertyfile.ReadLine()) != null)
{
string[] propertyfromread = readproperty.Trim().Split('=');
if (propertyfromread.GetValue(0).ToString() == "pathoffile")
{
pathoffile = propertyfromread.GetValue(1).ToString();
pathoffile = pathoffile.Replace("\n", "").Replace("\r", "");
MessageBox.Show(pathoffile, "path file");
}
else if ((propertyfromread.GetValue(0).ToString() == "backuppath"))
{
backuppath = propertyfromread.GetValue(1).ToString();
backuppath = backuppath.Replace("\n", "").Replace("\r", "");
MessageBox.Show(backuppath);
}
else if ((propertyfromread.GetValue(0).ToString() == "pdffolderpath"))
{
pdffolderpath = propertyfromread.GetValue(1).ToString();
pdffolderpath = pdffolderpath.Replace("\n", "").Replace("\r", "");
MessageBox.Show(pdffolderpath);
}
else if ((propertyfromread.GetValue(0).ToString() == "portname"))
{
portname = propertyfromread.GetValue(1).ToString();
portname = portname.Replace("\n", "").Replace("\r", "");
MessageBox.Show(portname);
}
}
}
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
propertyget();
dv = dt.DefaultView; //set dv index count to != 0 to prevent error from null input when click on remove button
if (System.IO.File.Exists(pathoffile))//Check if file exist or not
{
}
else
{
try
{
MessageBox.Show("Database Text File Missing. Please Select New File", "Database Text File Missing", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Asterisk);
OpenFileDialog regispath = new OpenFileDialog();
regispath.Title = "Select Database Text File (part_no_and_path_list.txt)";
regispath.Multiselect = false;
regispath.Filter = "Text file (*.txt)|*.txt";
regispath.RestoreDirectory = true;
regispath.ShowDialog();
pathfile = regispath.FileName;
File.Copy(pathfile, pathoffile);
}
catch
{
And this is my property text file
pathoffile=#"C:\Users\PFA Wongsawat\Desktop\part_no_and_path_list.txt"
backuppath=#"C:\Users\PFA Wongsawat\Documents\part_no_and_path_list.txt"
pdffolderpath=#"C:\Users\PFA Wongsawat\Downloads\"
portname=COM3
In this case the result always a messageBox showing "Database Text File Missing. Please Select New File"
Thank you and sorry for my bad English.

You don't put #" and " in the text file, you only put them in the code because that's how the c# compiler knows they're strings (and knows not to interpret slashes as an escape character)
Just make your text file look like:
pathoffile=C:\Users\PFA Wongsawat\Desktop\part_no_and_path_list.txt
I also recommend you use:
Split(new []{'='}, 2)
This will allow you to use = in your path, by making split return a maximum of 2 split values; any = that are legitimately in the path would be preserved
Actually I recommend you use one of the various built in settings mechanisms that c# has; we haven't needed to read and write our own configuration files for about 25 years
If you really do want to continue rolling your own you can reduce your code massively by using a dictionary
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
public class Settings{
private Dictionary<string,string> _conf = new Dictionary<string,string>();
public string PathOfFile {
get => _conf["pathoffile"];
}
public void ReadConfig(){
File.ReadAllLines("conf.txt").ToDictionary(
x => x.Split(new[]{'='},2)[0],
x => x.Split(new[]{'='},2)[1]
);
}
}
Yep, it's all you need. Every time you want to add another setting, add another property (like public string PathOfFile), add another love to the file and make sure the string in the property matches the line in the file
In other areas, please read up on c# naming conventions; PublicThingsAreNamedLikeThis, _privateLikeThis, localLikeThis, neverlikethis

Thank you I've already solved this problem
By remove "#" and '""' from path in the property text file like this.
pathoffile=C:\Users\PFA Wongsawat\Desktop\part_no_and_path_list.txt
backuppath=C:\Users\PFA Wongsawat\Documents\part_no_and_path_list.txt
pdffolderpath=C:\Users\PFA Wongsawat\Downloads\
portname=COM3
The reason I can't see this because I debug the program by seeing the result in message box and it not match with the real one. Thank you.

dictionary error item with the same key has already been added

I'm trying to read every #define in a C++ header, and display an editor for each of the values, so I can quickly redefine the constants.
I'm trying to parse the file, getting each item on the left side to be key. I want to display the value on the left, edit the values and save back out. Currently, when I save my file it messes up the format.
This is the code i currently have :
private String header;
private Dictionary<String, String> tokens;
private String file = Properties.Settings.Default.path_location;
public TextBox elf_naparm_zombie_developer;
public harrs_gsh_editor(string file)//TextBox elf_naparm_zombie_developer
{
Properties.Settings.Default.path_location = file;
Properties.Settings.Default.Save();
loadweapon();
// this.elf_naparm_zombie_developer = elf_naparm_zombie_developer;
}
public void loadweapon()
{
this.tokens = File.ReadLines(this.file)
.Select(line => Regex.Match(line, #"^\s*#define\s+(.+?)(\s+(.+?))?((\s*//)|$)"))
.Where(m => m.Success && m.Groups[3].Success)
.ToDictionary(m => m.Groups[1].Value, m => m.Groups[3].Value);
}
public String Search(String name)
{
foreach (KeyValuePair<String, String> pair in tokens)
{
if (pair.Key == name)
return pair.Value;
}
return null;
}
public void Set(String key, String val)
{
tokens[key] = val;
}
public void Save(String file)
{
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(File.OpenWrite(file)))
{
sw.Write(header);
foreach (KeyValuePair<String, String> pair in tokens)
{
sw.Write("\r\n" + pair.Key + "#define " + pair.Value);
}
}
}
public void Save()
{
this.Save(file);
}
The issue I have is when I save it back, it messes up the file and removes the #define. What im trying to do is just change the value and write it back to the program with changed value
this is the file i want to edit
So what im trying to do is load up the selected key and display the value witch i have managed to do with this code i created but the issue im having is writing it back
the code i use to load and populate the text box
namespace Harry_s_Template_Editor
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
harrs_gsh_editor elfghc;
string path = System.Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments) + #"/hb21_zm_ai_napalm.gsh";
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
elfghc = new harrs_gsh_editor(path);//TextBox elf_naparm_zombie_developer
elf_naparm_zombie_developer = elf_naparm_zombie_developer;
// MessageBox.Show(path);
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
elfghc.loadweapon();
this.elf_naparm_zombie_developer.Text = elfghc.Search("NAPALM_ZOMBIE_DEVELOPER_DEBUG_PRINTS");
elfghc.Set("NAPALM_ZOMBIE_DEVELOPER_DEBUG_PRINTS", elf_naparm_zombie_developer.Text);
}
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
}
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
elfghc.Set("NAPALM_ZOMBIE_DEVELOPER_DEBUG_PRINTS", elf_naparm_zombie_developer.Text);
elfghc.Save(path);
}
}
}
when i save out the file i now get this error when i try to load the program again
error
thanks in advance Yuki
file when saved back

Original answer:
Why are you writing it back to the file in this order: sw.Write("\r\n" + pair.Key + "#define " + pair.Value);? Shouldn't the #define come first on the line after \r\n? I would have thought it should be something like this: sw.Write("\r\n#define " + pair.Key + " " + pair.Value);
New answer (the question has changed)
There are two problems with what you are doing:
You are writing key/value pairs back to a file, ignoring the headers and credits that were in the original file. If you're happy to strip those out then that's fine, but it sounds like this is important to you. So instead you need to read the file, find the keys in the file, then update the values and save the updated file back to disk. That's a harder problem than simply writing a bunch of key/value pairs to a file.
The second issue is the way you are writing the file back to disk. According to this MSDN page, File.OpenWrite has the following behaviour:
The OpenWrite method opens a file if one already exists for the file
path, or creates a new file if one does not exist. For an existing
file, it does not append the new text to the existing text. Instead,
it overwrites the existing characters with the new characters. If you
overwrite a longer string (such as “This is a test of the OpenWrite
method”) with a shorter string (such as “Second run”), the file will
contain a mix of the strings (“Second runtest of the OpenWrite
method”).
So this is why you're getting a mangled file. You're overwriting the first N bytes with your updated key/value pairs, and the rest of the file is duplicated data from the original file. You probably want to use the following instead, which will overwrite the original file entirely:
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(file, false))

Parsing key value pairs c#

I've been having issues attempting to parse key value pairs from a text file. I've been scouring for libraries that can do what I'd like as I do not have the ability to create a class that can do this.
Here is the beginning of my file along with a portion of commented out text and key value pairs:
#!version:1.0.0.1
##File header "#!version:1.0.0.1" can not be edited or deleted, and must be placed in the first line.##
#######################################################################################
## Account1 Basic Settings ##
#######################################################################################
account.1.enable = 1
account.1.label = Front
account.1.display_name = Front
What I'm looking to do is grab these values, and be able to update them to within the file in the same location in the file that they are as these files need to remain human readable.
I've looked into Nini as this library seems to be able to do what I'd like, however the error I continue to have is based off of the line 1 of my file as it is not a key value pair.
Expected assignment operator (=) - Line: 1, Position: 19.
I read through the source of Nini, and it seems there is a way to condition the reader to use Mysqlstyle, which would use "#" as comments, but I'm unsure how to adjust it or if it is done automatically as it is completely over my head.
I understand that my files aren't legitimate ini files and there is probably a limitation within the Nini library as it searches for the section that the key value pairs are in.
The code I've attempted to use to parse and display this text to edit with Nini is as follows:
public void EditCFG(string file)
{
if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(file))
{
IniConfigSource inifile = new IniConfigSource(file);
account_1_display_name.Text = inifile.Configs[""].Get("account.1.display.name");
}
}
Could someone please point me in the right direction?
EDIT
Thanks to #rowland-shaw, I have found the solution:
private IConfigSource source = null;
public void EditCFG(string file)
{
if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(file))
{
IniDocument inifile = new IniDocument(file, IniFileType.MysqlStyle);
source = new IniConfigSource(inifile);
account_1_display_name.Text = source.Configs["account"].Get("account.1.display_name");
}
}
However, this wasn't completely the answer. I had to also implement sections within the file. After testing my equipment that grabs these files with the updated text, everything was a success.

You need to specify the IniFileType, i.e.:
IniConfigSource inifile = new IniConfigSource(file, IniFileType.MysqlStyle);
Long example:
IniDocument inifile = new IniDocument(file, IniFileType.MysqlStyle);
IniConfigSource source = new IniConfigSource(inifile);

If that is how the format is going to be (key = value and # for comments) in the file, you could do the following (c# pseudocode-ish, you can do the trivial stuff yourself):
Dictionary<string, string> dictionary;
foreach(string line in file)
{
if(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(line)) continue;
// Remove extra spaces
line = line.Trim();
if(line[0] == '#') continue;
string[] kvp = line.Split('=');
dictionary[kvp[0].Trim()] = kvp[1].Trim(); // kvp[0] = key, kvp[1] = value
}
Then you can use the created dictionary like account_1_display_name.Text = dictionary["account.1.display.name"];

i can recommend my library Nager.ConfigParser you can easily obtain them over nuget.
Here the example for your configuration
var config = "#comment1\r\naccount.1.enable = 1\r\naccount.1.label = Front";
var configConvert = new ConfigConvert();
var item = configConvert.DeserializeObject<AccountCollection>(config);
public class AccountCollection
{
[ConfigKey("account.")]
[ConfigArray]
public Account[] Accounts { get; set; }
}
public class Account : ConfigArrayElement
{
public int Enable { get; set; }
public string Label { get; set; }
[ConfigKey("display_name")]
public string DisplayName { get; set; }
}

Save and Load ListView content

I am writing an app in C# winForm, and I am using ListView to store some data.
I need to save this list of item when the form is closed and load it again when the form is opened again.
This is the code to add a new element on the list:
string[] timeitem = new string[2];
timeitem[0] = txtDescription.Text;
timeitem[1] = msktime.Text;
ListViewItem lvi = new ListViewItem(timeitem);
lstTimes.Items.Add(lvi);
What is the best way to save and load this list? I do not need a Dialog for the user, this list should be saved and loaded automatically each time the user open the form that contains the ListView item. I am open to use either .txt or xml file, whatever is the best/more easy to handle.

You could write a simple helper class for that:
class ListItemsHelper
{
private const string FILE_NAME = "items.dat";
public static void SaveData(Items items)
{
string data = SerializeItems(items);
File.WriteAllText(GetFilePath(), data);
}
public static Items LoadData()
{
string data = File.ReadAllText(GetFilePath());
return DeserializeItems(data);
}
private static string GetFilePath()
{
return Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, FILE_NAME);
}
private static string SerializeItems(Items items)
{
//Do serialization here
}
private static Items DeserializeItems(string data)
{
//Do deserialization here
}
}
Use:
ItemsStateHelper.SaveData(items);
Items data = ItemsStateHelper.LoadData();
Additionally, you would have to include some exception handling and choose where you want to save the file. In the code i posted it is saving on folder where the exe file is located.