Formatting and displaying data from an access database (WPF, C#)

Question

Evening all,

To the point: Within my WPF application I would like to display data from an access database within a listbox in the format of a ToString method created within another class. -- I can display the data, but it does not contain formatting.

Context of my question: I am creating an application for my graded unit at college which adds, deletes and displays data from an access database. I am having no trouble with adding or deleting data to the database, however, I am struggling to display the data in a particular format.

Due to specific requirements, I have had to create an abstract Games class, with the subclasses Platform and Mobile (games).

I would like to know how to display data from an access database in a listbox (though this is flexible to change), whilst formatting the content to a previously created ToString() method in both the Platform and Mobile class. I understand that I may have to create two separate methods to display platform and mobile games, as they each have an additional variable.

Currently, I am storing my listPlatform() method within my Catalogue class, which is accessed from a separate window (EmployeeWindow, which contains the list view box, then accessing this method and calling it via a button_click event.

Catalogue class --

        public List<string> listPlatform()
    {
        List<string> data = new List<string>();
        string queryString = "SELECT ID, Game_Name, Developer, Publisher, Genre, Age_Rating, Price, Quantity, Description, Platform FROM GameDetails";
        using (OleDbConnection connection = new OleDbConnection(ConnString))
        {
            OleDbCommand command = new OleDbCommand(queryString, connection);
            connection.Open();
            OleDbDataReader reader = command.ExecuteReader();
            while (reader.Read())
            {
                int id = reader.GetInt32(0); 
                string gName = reader.GetString(1);
                string gDeveloper = reader.GetString(2);
                string gPublisher = reader.GetString(3);
                string gGenre = reader.GetString(4);
                int gAgeRating = reader.GetInt32(5);
                var gPrice = reader.GetValue(6);
                var gQuantity = reader.GetValue(7);
                var gDescription = reader.GetValue(8);
                var gPlatform = reader.GetValue(9);

                data.Add(id + gName + gDeveloper + gPublisher + gGenre + gAgeRating + gPrice
                    + gQuantity + gDescription + gPlatform);
            }
            reader.Close();
        }
        return data;
    }

EmployeeWindow --

private void btnDisplay_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            List<string> data = theCatalogue.listPlatform();
            lstvwGames.Items.Clear();
            foreach (string s in data)
            {
                lstvwGames.Items.Add(s);
            }         
        }

Platform class --

        /// <summary>
    /// Returns a string representation of a Platform game
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public override string ToString()
    {
        string strout = string.Format(base.ToString() + "Platform:{0}", platform);
        return strout;
    }

I hope that my question makes sense and that I have provided enough information to give you some understanding of what it is that I am trying to do.

Answer 1

I think that, in this scenario, you need to add another class to your code.
The Game class that you could model looking at the fields present in your database table

public class Game
{
    public int ID {get;set;}       
    public string GameName {get;set;}
    public string Developer {get;set;}
    public string Publisher {get;set;}
    public string Genre {get;set;}
    public string Age_Rating {get;set;}
    public decimal Price {get;set;}
    public int Quantity {get;set;}
    public string Description {get;set;}
    public string Platform {get;set;}

    public override string ToString()
    {
       return this.GameName + " - " + this.Genre;
    }
}

Now in the Catalogue class, when you read your database you build a List<Game> not a List<String>

public List<Game> listPlatform()
{
    ..... 
    List<Game> games = new List<Game>();
    while (reader.Read())
    {
        Game g = new Game();
        g.ID = reader.GetInt32(0); 
        g.GameName = reader.GetString(1);
        ... and so on for the rest of fields

        games.Add(g);
    }

    ...
    return games;
}

Finally, when you need to add the games to your ListBox, you could write

private void btnDisplay_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    List<Game> data = theCatalogue.listPlatform();
    lstvwGames.Items.Clear();
    foreach (Game g in data)
    {
        lstvwGames.Items.Add(g.ToString());
    }         
}

And you have a list filled with GameName and Genre.

EDIT to complete this answer,

Finally, you could directly set the DataSource, DisplayMember and ValueMember properties of the ListBox with your List<Game> and some of its properties removing the need to have a loop to fill items

private void btnDisplay_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    lstvwGames.ValueMember = "ID";
    lstvwGames.DisplayMember = "GameData";
    lstvwGames.DataSource = theCatalogue.listPlatform();
}

In this example the DisplayMember property is assigned to a new GameData field that you should define inside your Game class. This new readonly property could be the actual return value of the ToString method of the same class or another value of your choice

public class Game
{
    .....
    public string GameData 
    {
        // Only a getter, thus readonly
        get
        {
            return this.ToString();
        }
    }
}

Of course you could change the ToString method or the GameData property inside the Game class to return the info you really want to display in the listbox.

Answer 2

I do not see you using the tostring override method. Maybe you meant to use it here?

lstvwGames.Items.Add(s.ToString());