Question for easier design instead of using if/then statements

Joel Reid

Hello,

I've been working on creating an application take user input, store it in a table and printing a ship manifest.

The problem I am running into is having several text boxes where the user can insert asset #'s to ship to a specific destination.

Right now I am just using several if/then statements to first determine if the textbox is empty, and if it is not, I convert whatever was input, into an integer.

My question is, is there an easier way to check all the textbox's to see if they are null, and if not, convert whatever is in them to an int value? Many thanks!

Joel

6 Replies

Know the answer? Post it — somebody with the same question will find it here.

Sam Hobbs16y ago
There are very many ways to do what you are doing. Microsoft has developed many things taht can make things easier for us. For example, it is possible to bind a database table to a form and then Visual Studio and .Net does a lot for us. My article Database Table Update in a DataGridView without Writing Code shows an example of that.

Is there any data associated with each asset number?
0
Felipe Ramos16y ago
Glad to help Joel
0
Joel Reid16y ago
Ok I understand. I will play with it and let you know if I have any further questions. Thanks for your help Felipe!
0
Felipe Ramos16y ago
When you write a function you specify a return type. For the function below it is bool, but I also want to return the value of the TextBox.Text property so out specifies that that parameter is an output parameter. You can use the function for any TextBox ex:

int item1, item2, item2;

if (!IsEmpty(tb1, out item1))
{
// You parse your first item textbox and item1 already contains the value
}
0
Joel Reid16y ago
Thanks for your reply Felipe, I have a few questions however.

What exactly is an Out?

Also, I have a total of 15 text boxes where the user can input an item number. Is your example for just one textbox? If so, how can you switch that around to check 15?
0
Felipe Ramos16y ago
Joel you can write a function to validate your TextBox and have an out param with the int value.

   protected bool IsEmpty(TextBox tb, out int value)
   {
   value = -1; // Default Out

   if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(tb.Text)) // First check that it is populated
   if (int.TryParse(tb.Text, out value)) // Not numeric still return false
   return true;

   return false; // Default return
   }
0