From String... to Variable... to Listbox [Newbian looking for help]

Question

Hello all thanks for reading. I am trying to learn C# and have picked up a lot very quickly by reading tutorials watching videos using boards and writing a practice piece. I am currently stuck on a problem... // ... I have a form that shows details of Operatives. On that form has a listbox where I have a list of skills that the operative has. This list needs to be add to by the User. Also this list will be searchable later in the programme. I have come up with a comma deliminated string. With the code |__|CODE|__| char[] splits = { ' ' '' }; |__|CODE|__| to help split up the deliminated entries. This works fine but I would like the string to get its information from the database table and in reverse have any selection saved back to the database. QUESTION: How can I have my Variable call a specific field in an sql database table that currently holds a string of comma deliminated text (nvarchar). ATTEMPT : |__|CODE|__| str = Database1DataSet.OperativeDataTable.Equals (Skills); |__|CODE |__| needless to say this idea didn't work but I simply cannot work out the correct syntax I'm convinced however that it is achievable. Thank you for your help I very much appreciate your time and effort.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

I don't understand what you mean about the title of a listbox; or if I do then it is very easy to do. As for how to add skills then your program can simply do a lookup for a skill and if the skill is not found just add the skill.

Paul Chambers · Answer

Thanks for you help Sam I think you have helped me Crack it I will report back so anyone with a similar problem can see what I did. ~Paul

Paul Chambers · Answer

Thank you Sam. Yes that certainly does sound like the best way of doing it. I have been using SQL database and have got to grips with creating tables but How can I have a list box show the titles of columns(would be the skills) ? and also if the user added new skills I would need to have the programme add new columns for those skills.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Yes I think storing each skill in a separate row is best but I know there is a lot to learn; very much. Fortunately the knowledge is very useful. I do understand though that you might want to do it an easier way. There is so much to learn and sometimes we must prioritize what is most important for learning. You will benefit from a book that teaches C# .Net and databases. You will really benefit from a book that teaches about databases. I will try to explain what is the best way to do this if the developer is familiar with databases. I assume that the skills are a specific list of skills; that is that there are generally skills that apply to many (not all) operatives. You should have a table that lists each skill and then the rows for each operative would relate to the skills. You can use a database such as Access to learn about creating tables with relationships. It is more work doing the relationships but it is also more powerful. When you relate the data it is easier to do things such as list all the operatives with a specified skill. Data relationships are very common; in a database of books a book might have a specifed list of subjects and one or more authors. By relating the data it is possible to find all books with a specifed subject or with a specified author.

Paul Chambers · Answer

Hello Sam thank you for replying. Sorry about the formatt of my postings I seem to be having problems with this site. Its actually the skills of an operative that are in the list box and are to be transfered into a Database. But because these skills can vary so much and is dependant on the User input I thought that I could have a listbox with multiple selection on and then take those selections and store them in 1 field in the database on the same record as the operative's other details. Later I would work out how to search this field to help narrow down the all operatives with a given skill. I'm very new to programming and thank you for taking the time to post a reply I'm afraid I don't know about Settings But I have found that link you gave me very interesting and will look through some of the posts to learn a little more about C# and SQL data handling. Hopefully i have cleared up a few things do you still think your answer is the best way forward? Any advice on the matter is most appreciated.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

If you truly want to store all operatives together in one string then you might want to store the string as a setting. I don't know how many operatives there are so I don't know how larget the string will be so I am not sure how practical it would be to use a setting but a setting would sure make programming easy. Do you know how to use settings? If you are storing in a database table the normal way to do it is to store each operative in a separate row of a table. See Data Walkthroughs to get an idea of what you can do. Don't do all the walkthroughs; do the ones that appear to relate to what you are doing. Those walkthroughs will show you how to use Visual Studio (VS) interactively. The answer to the question  How can I have my Variable call a specific field in an sql database table  depends on what you need to do with the data.