Deserialization

Deserialization

• RAMPRAKASH

  You have been a huge help to me and I thank you very much. I'm going to try and figure out how to now delete an array from which I have serialized. But I want to try and figure it out myself if I can. Thank you.
  

• David N.4117

  I think I understand the concept. Tell me if I'm on the right track. When I deserialize the data, the application then has the data i.e. name, address on hand for me to assign an action to that data. In other words I must deserialize the data and then assign a specific action for each individual data such as textbox1.text = patient's name. My question now is, how do I go through each element in the array list How do I identify specific data in the 'theCollectionOfPatients' to be put placed where I want it i.e. textbox1 Will you please look at the coding below and tell me what I'm not getting I feel as though I'm missing the coding to read the arraylist.. .

  Private Sub Button2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click

  'this is the button to open file

  Me.DoDeserializePatient()

  TextBox1.Text = Patient

  TextBox2.Text = PatientAddress

  TextBox3.Text = PatientPhoneNumber

  End Sub

  
  

• Prabu.

  I am getting "Name 'currentpatient' not declared" in the private sub. Why I thought it was declared in the "For Each currentPatient" statement.

  Private Sub Button2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click

  'this is the button to open file

  Me.DoDeserializePatient()

  For Each currentPatient As Patient In Me.theCollectionOfPatients

  Next

  MessageBox.Show(currentPatient.Name & Environment.NewLine & currentPatient.Age.ToString() & Environment.NewLine & currentPatient.Address)

  Me.ComboBox1.Items.Add(currentPatient.Name)

  End Sub

  I had also considered SQL and MS Access database. I will not have the capabilities of utilizing a database server. However, do you think MS Access would be more appropriate. This is what I'm trying to do... I want to build an application that can provide a form for input by the user for numerous patients. Then take the information entered on the main form and apply it to several other forms. For example, a patient's name is on a physician order, medication administration record, consents, delegation orders, IDT staffing, ect. I want to enter this information one time and then pull up any number of forms and the information be instantly in place.

  
  

• Garry W

  :-)

  well, each has their own difficulties. It shouldnt be that hard to learn - I would say about the same. MS Access database will be used if the database is stored in the same directory (for example, or somewhere on the computer) as the application. If it doesnt exist, you can't connect to it, or do anything related to databases. This is where SQL Server comes in handy - one central location, anyone from anywhere can access it - better managed since MS Access for really for mini type databases and not an industry type application like SQL is.

  you can use SQL Express which is free.

  you could maybe connect to the MS Access database from any location probably, if its stored in one central location but the number of connections would probably be limited, unlike SQL Server

   

  
  
  

• GrayTap Media

  anytime, glad we could help! I would also suggest, perhaps something in the background, to do some investigating in using a proper database engine - MS Access or SQL and implement the solution using that.
  
  

• mikalush

  almost there. Remember, if there are 3 patients and you go through each patient and setting the textbox's text to show say, the patient's name, age, address - then the last patient will be the one the textbox will be showing the data for.

  First thing is first. Let's go through each element of the array and show the patient info. So AFTER deserializing, you could place this code or perhaps on some other button event, once you have Deserialized the data.

   

  for each currentPatient as Patient in Me.theCollectionOfPatients

     MessageBox.Show(currentPatient.Name & Environment.NewLine & currentPatient.Age.ToString() & Environment.NewLine & currentPatient.Address)

  next

   

  this will go through each item in the array, which have the patients which have been deserialized (loaded from file) and show you the details of the patient in a messagebox.

   

  now, to show the specific patient details in the textbox you have 2 options:

   

• know the exact location in the array of that patient - bad idea, its impossible for you to know of by heart/mind at what position in the array that patient object will be stored in

• have a drop down list with the names of each patient perhaps, or something like this (perhaps a record ID...whatever) then depending on the selection, show the details - better Idea.

   

  so...once deserialized, you may wish to populate the patient's name, for example, in a combobox:

  ...

  for each currentPatient as Patient in Me.theCollectionOfPatients

     Me.theComboBox.Items.Add(currentPatient.Name)

  next

   

  when you select the combobox, you want to get their details and put it in a textbox correct So, double click the combobox to make a selectedindexchanged event handler then do this:

   

  if Me.theCollectionOfObjects.Count > 0 then

     Dim thePatient as Patient = CType(Me.theCollectionOfPatients(Me.theComboBox.SelectedIndex), Patient) 'converts the object in the array to a patient. You may be better of using a Generic/List collection but this is something for later for you to investigate in

     Me.theTextBoxName.Text = thePatient.Name

     Me.theTextBoxAge.Text = thePatient.Age

     Me.theTextBoxAddress.Text = thePatient.Address

  end if

   

  Now, since patients may have same names, its hard for you to know who is who without checking each same patient name in the list correct Each patient has an ID number of some sort correct

  So now, you would need to add a property in the Patient class called "ID" (same way the other properties were created such as name, address etc...) and make sure you assign an ID to the patient. Then we can populate the combobox with the Patient ID's so you can type in the ID number and press enter, or an OK button to bring the correct patient details by going through each element of the array and checking the current patient's ID number - similar to the above

   

  since now this is going towards more of a database approach, you may wish to consider using SQL Server or MS Access since it is better managable, in a sense, such as assigning unique ID numbers and so on, and querying the tables and getting back the results correctly, then binding them to a bindable UI component, such as a datagridvew or a textbox

   

  does this help/make some sense