What is the best way to save a lot of data?

Question

Hello I am creating a program which has a lot of data in it and I am trying to figure out what would be the best way for me to save/load this data once the program closes/opens. Let me first describe the program It has a list box on the left and a rich text area on the right. Depending on the selection in list box the rich text area will be populated with text of different font size etc... So since I need to load correct text every time a selection in list box is changed what would be my best approach towards this. Rich text is going to have a lot of text in there lets say about 500-1000 chars in length. I was hoping to use access database but this is not a must only a thought. I could really use some suggestions for this. Please feel free to ask me any questions if I wasn't detailed enough. Regards Bagzli

Vulpes · Answer

Well if you don't want to save the path to the .rtf file in the database then I suppose you could you could try and save the .rtf file itself in binary form within the database using the BLOB data type. However it's not a very efficient way to do things IMO.

bagzli · Answer

For argument sakes even if it is not the best way. What would be other ways of doing this if I really want to use a database? Please don't say create .rts files and manage names through database =)

Vulpes · Answer

I'd save data such as that in .rtf files because (apart from plain text) that's what the RichTextBox is designed to work with. The content of such files can be pulled in quickly without the need for a database connection using the RichTextBox.LoadFile method. If you create a sub-directory off your main application's directory you can store all the files (one file for each ListBox selection) in there to keep them all together and easy to manage. If you intend to install the application on machines other than the development machine then you can find the path to the current executable (and hence to the .rtf files) with Application.StartupPath.

bagzli · Answer

Is there anyone who can help me out on this one?