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.

Opening a hyperlink generated dynamically with a string command

Backstory,
So I am working on a personal assistant program and all my voice commands are translated into strings for parsing.
I have set up the ability to search Google and display the results in a text block as hyperlinks.
Now I want to be able to set up the ability to open these links with speech(string commands). So far I have the following.
This bit allows me to search using the Google Custom Search API with a custom "GoogleSearch" class.
public void search_google(string query) //Google Searching
{
#region link strings
string result_1 = "";
string result_2 = "";
string result_3 = "";
string result_4 = "";
string result_5 = "";
string result_6 = "";
string result_7 = "";
string result_8 = "";
string result_9 = "";
string result_10 = "";
#endregion
GoogleSearch search = new GoogleSearch()
{
Key = "{apikey}",
CX = "{cxkey}"
};
search.SearchCompleted += (a, b) =>
{
tab_control.SelectedIndex = 2;
int p = 1;
search_results.Text = String.Empty;
foreach (Item i in b.Response.Items)
{
Hyperlink hyperLink = new Hyperlink()
{
NavigateUri = new Uri(i.Link)
};
hyperLink.Inlines.Add(i.Title);
hyperLink.RequestNavigate += Hyperlink_RequestNavigate;
hyperLink.Name = "result_" + p;
//search_results.Inlines.Add(hyperLink.Name);
search_results.Inlines.Add(Environment.NewLine);
search_results.Inlines.Add(hyperLink);
search_results.Inlines.Add(Environment.NewLine);
search_results.Inlines.Add(i.Snippet);
search_results.Inlines.Add(Environment.NewLine);
search_results.Inlines.Add(Environment.NewLine);
p++;
};
};
search.Search(query);
}
It outputs my results in a series of hyperlinks and text snippets into a text block that I set up on the main window. The search process is triggered by my input parser which looks for the keywords "search" or "Google".
The next step would be the input parser checking for keyword "result" to look for the hyperlink to open. Here is the unfinished code for that.
if ((Input.Contains("result") || Input.Contains("Result")) && tab_control.TabIndex == 2)
{
int result_number = 0;
switch(result_number)
{
case 1:
if (Input.Contains("first") || Input.Contains("1st"))
{
// open hyperlink with name property result_1
}
break;
case 2:
// additional cases added up to 10 with similar syntax for parsing.
}
}

You can open a hyperlink in the default browser using:
Process.Start(myHyperlink);
EDIT
Based on your comments, it seems you are having trouble accessing result_1 (etc.).
You define result_1 as a variable local to the method search_google()
public void search_google(string query) //Google Searching
{
#region link strings
string result_1 = "";
That means result_1 is only visible within that method.
Your if and switch statements do not appear to be part of search_google(), so they can never see result_1. If those statements are in a different method, you can work around that issue by moving result_1 to the class level (outside of search_google()).
ON a site note, rather than defining ten individual result strings, you probably want to use an array of strings or a list of strings.

Files,strings and save

I been having trouble trying to figure this out. When I think I have it I get told no. Here is a picture of it.
I am working on the save button. Now after the user adds the first name, last name and job title they can save it. If a user loads the file and it comes up in the listbox, that person should be able to click on the name and then hit the edit button and they should be able to edit it. I have code, but I did get inform it looked wackey and the string should have the first name, last name and job title.
It is getting me really confused as I am learning C#. I know how to use savefiledialog but I am not allowed to use it on this one. Here is what I am suppose to be doing:
When the user clicks the “Save” button, write the selected record to
the file specified in txtFilePath (absolute path not relative) without
truncating the values currently inside.
I am still working on my code since I got told that it will be better file writes records in a group of three strings. But this is the code I have right now.
private void Save_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string path = txtFilePath.Text;
if (File.Exists(path))
{
using (StreamWriter sw = File.CreateText(path))
{
foreach (Employee employee in employeeList.Items)
sw.WriteLine(employee);
}
}
else
try
{
StreamWriter sw = File.AppendText(path);
foreach (var item in employeeList.Items)
sw.WriteLine(item.ToString());
}
catch
{
MessageBox.Show("Please enter something in");
}
Now I can not use save or open file dialog. The user should be able to open any file on the C,E,F drive or where it is. I was also told it should be obj.Also the program should handle and exceptions that arise.
I know this might be a noobie question but my mind is stuck as I am still learning how to code with C#. Now I have been searching and reading. But I am not finding something to help me understand how to have all this into 1 code. If someone might be able to help or even point to a better web site I would appreciate it.

There are many, many ways to store data in a file. This code demonstrates 4 methods that are pretty easy to use. But the point is that you should probably be splitting up your data into separate pieces rather than storing them as one long string.
public class MyPublicData
{
public int id;
public string value;
}
[Serializable()]
class MyEncapsulatedData
{
private DateTime created;
private int length;
public MyEncapsulatedData(int length)
{
created = DateTime.Now;
this.length = length;
}
public DateTime ExpirationDate
{
get { return created.AddDays(length); }
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string testpath = System.IO.Path.Combine(
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop), "TestFile");
// Method 1: Automatic XML serialization
// Requires that the type being serialized and all its serializable members are public
System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer xs =
new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(MyPublicData));
MyPublicData o1 = new MyPublicData() {id = 3141, value = "a test object"};
MyEncapsulatedData o2 = new MyEncapsulatedData(7);
using (System.IO.StreamWriter w = new System.IO.StreamWriter(testpath + ".xml"))
{
xs.Serialize(w, o1);
}
// Method 2: Manual XML serialization
System.Xml.XmlWriter xw = System.Xml.XmlWriter.Create(testpath + "1.xml");
xw.WriteStartElement("MyPublicData");
xw.WriteStartAttribute("id");
xw.WriteValue(o1.id);
xw.WriteEndAttribute();
xw.WriteAttributeString("value", o1.value);
xw.WriteEndElement();
xw.Close();
// Method 3: Automatic binary serialization
// Requires that the type being serialized be marked with the "Serializable" attribute
using (System.IO.FileStream f = new System.IO.FileStream(testpath + ".bin", System.IO.FileMode.Create))
{
System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter bf =
new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter();
bf.Serialize(f, o2);
}
// Demonstrate how automatic binary deserialization works
// and prove that it handles objects with private members
using (System.IO.FileStream f = new System.IO.FileStream(testpath + ".bin", System.IO.FileMode.Open))
{
System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter bf =
new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter();
MyEncapsulatedData o3 = (MyEncapsulatedData)bf.Deserialize(f);
Console.WriteLine(o3.ExpirationDate.ToString());
}
// Method 4: Manual binary serialization
using (System.IO.FileStream f = new System.IO.FileStream(testpath + "1.bin", System.IO.FileMode.Create))
{
using (System.IO.BinaryWriter w = new System.IO.BinaryWriter(f))
{
w.Write(o1.id);
w.Write(o1.value);
}
}
// Demonstrate how manual binary deserialization works
using (System.IO.FileStream f = new System.IO.FileStream(testpath + "1.bin", System.IO.FileMode.Open))
{
using (System.IO.BinaryReader r = new System.IO.BinaryReader(f))
{
MyPublicData o4 = new MyPublicData() { id = r.ReadInt32(), value = r.ReadString() };
Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", o4.id, o4.value);
}
}
}
}

As you are writing the employee objects with WriteLine, the underlying ToString() is being invoked. What you have to do first is to customize that ToString() methods to fit your needs, in this way:
public class Employee
{
public string FirstName;
public string LastName;
public string JobTitle;
// all other declarations here
...........
// Override ToString()
public override string ToString()
{
return string.Format("'{0}', '{1}', '{2}'", this.FirstName, this.LastName, this.JobTitle);
}
}
This way, your writing code still keeps clean and readable.
By the way, there is not a reverse equivalent of ToSTring, but to follow .Net standards, I suggest you to implement an Employee's method like:
public static Employee Parse(string)
{
// your code here, return a new Employee object
}

You have to determine a way of saving that suits your needs. A simple way to store this info could be CSV:
"Firstname1","Lastname 1", "Jobtitle1"
" Firstname2", "Lastname2","Jobtitle2 "
As you can see, data won't be truncated, since the delimiter " is used to determine string boundaries.
As shown in this question, using CsvHelper might be an option. But given this is homework and the constraints therein, you might have to create this method yourself. You could put this in Employee (or make it override ToString()) that does something along those lines:
public String GetAsCSV(String firstName, String lastName, String jobTitle)
{
return String.Format("\"{0}\",\"{1}\",\"{2}\"", firstName, lastName, jobTitle);
}
I'll leave the way how to read the data back in as an exercise to you. ;-)

ADOX Multiple-step OLE DB operation generated errors

I have to make a program that turns off all Unicode compression and all "allow zero length" in an access database (.mdb) .
The method for turning off Allow Zero Length works very well. However, the method for turning off Unicode compression does not work at all and returns the following exception:
Multiple-step OLE DB operation generated errors. Check each OLE DB status value, if available. No work was done.
Any clue on how to solve this ?
private void TurnOffUnicodeCompressionInField(ADOX.CatalogClass catalogClass, String tableName, String field)
{
ADOX.Column column = catalogClass.Tables[tableName].Columns[field];
ADOX.Property prop = column.Properties["Jet OLEDB:Compressed UNICODE Strings"];
prop.Value = true;
}
private void TurnOffAllowZeroLengthInAllFields(ADOX.CatalogClass catalogClass, String tableName)
{
foreach (ADOX.Column column in catalogClass.Tables[tableName].Columns)
column.Properties["Jet OLEDB:Allow Zero Length"].Value = false;
}
private void MyButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
String filePath = "";
OpenFileDialog ofd = new OpenFileDialog();
DialogResult result = ofd.ShowDialog();
if (result == DialogResult.OK)
{
filePath = ofd.FileName;
ADOX.CatalogClass catDatabase = new ADOX.CatalogClass();
catDatabase.let_ActiveConnection("Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" + filePath);
// SoftwareTable
TurnOffAllowZeroLengthInAllFields(catDatabase,"Software");
TurnOffUnicodeCompressionInField(catDatabase, "Software", "Description");
TurnOffUnicodeCompressionInField(catDatabase, "Software", "Name");
}
}

You should check your strings for characters that do not have appropriate UNICODE values, these can often be introduced when text is copied and pasted from an application like MS Word. Specifically the "smart quotes" often cause issues.
Also take a look at the following thread (although it is in C++) Discussion on ADOX Property Usage in C++.
Are you able to loop through the properties and display their current values?