CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netwinforms
Shmuel Naukarkar
Shmuel Naukarkar

Reputation: 263

How can i build a content of text lines from some controls and write it to a text file?

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    string accountsSettingsFile = Path.GetDirectoryName(Application.LocalUserAppDataPath)
            + "\\accounts" + "\\accounts.txt";
    if (!File.Exists(accountsSettingsFile))
        File.Create(accountsSettingsFile);            
    System.IO.File.WriteAllText(accountsSettingsFile,);
}

I want to build a string right before writing the content to the text file in the button click event. Maybe StringBuilder and to format it to contain all the data from some controls.

I have a textBox1, textBox2, textBox3 a checkBox. I want to get all this controls data and write it in lines to the text file.

For example if in textBox1 I have "hello" and in textBox2 "world" and in textBox3 "hi" and the checkBox is false, then the text file content should be something like:

hello
world
hi
false

Upvotes: 0

Views: 52

Answers (3)

Brian Rudolph
Brian Rudolph

Reputation: 6308

I would go with something like this, especially if your list of controls might get longer later on:

    private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
      Form1.WriteToFile(textBox1, textBox2, textBox3, checkBox);
    }

    private static void WriteToFile(params Control[] controls)
    {
        string accountsSettingsFile = Path.GetDirectoryName(Application.LocalUserAppDataPath)
        + "\\accounts" + "\\accounts.txt";

        List<string> lines = new List<string>(controls.Length);

        foreach (var control in controls)
        {
            string value = Form1.GetValueFromControl(control);

            //this will skip null entries, not sure you really
            //want to do that, otherwise when you read this file back in
            //you will have no idea which values represent which fields
            if (value != null)
                lines.Add(value);
        }

        //This will overwrite the file. 
        //If you want to append use File.AppendAllLines
        File.WriteAllLines(accountsSettingsFile, lines);
    }

    private static string GetValueFromControl(Control control)
    {
        if (control is TextBox)
        {
            return ((TextBox)control).Text;
        }

        if (control is CheckBox)
        {
            return ((CheckBox)control).Checked.ToString();
        }

        return null;
    }

Though, since you are using this for settings, writing raw values to a text file is a very brittle approach. Might I recommend using serialization? Though this requires that you reference Newtonsoft.Json (via nuget) in your project:

 private void Button_Write_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        AccountSettings settings = new AccountSettings();
        settings.Setting1 = this.textBox1.Text;
        settings.Setting2 = this.textBox2.Text;
        settings.Setting3 = this.textBox3.Text;
        settings.CheckboxValue = this.checkBox.Checked;
        WriteJson(settings, SettingsFile);
    }

    private void Button_Read_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        AccountSettings settings = ReadJson<AccountSettings>(SettingsFile);
        this.textBox1.Text = settings.Setting1;
        this.textBox2.Text = settings.Setting2;
        this.textBox3.Text = settings.Setting3;
        this.checkBox.Checked = settings.CheckboxValue;
    }

    private static string SettingsFile
    {
        get
        {
            return Path.GetDirectoryName(Application.LocalUserAppDataPath)
           + "\\accounts" + "\\accounts.txt";
        }
    }

    private static void WriteJson(Object obj, string path)
    {
        var ser = new JsonSerializer();
        using (var file = File.CreateText(path))
        using (var writer = new JsonTextWriter(file))
        {
            ser.Serialize(writer, obj);
        }
    }

    private static T ReadJson<T>(string path)
        where T: new()
    {
        if (!File.Exists(path))
            return new T();

        var ser = new JsonSerializer();
        using (var file = File.OpenText(path))
        using (var reader = new JsonTextReader(file))
        {
            return ser.Deserialize<T>(reader);
        }
    }

    private class AccountSettings
    {
        public string Setting1 { get; set; }
        public string Setting2 { get; set; }
        public string Setting3 { get; set; }
        public bool CheckboxValue { get; set; }
    }

}

This gives you a strongly typed AccountSettings object that can be written and read in a very concrete and repeatable manner.

Upvotes: 3

IllusiveBrian
IllusiveBrian

Reputation: 3204

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    string accountsSettingsFile = Path.GetDirectoryName(Application.LocalUserAppDataPath)
            + "\\accounts" + "\\accounts.txt";
    if (!File.Exists(accountsSettingsFile))
        File.Create(accountsSettingsFile);     

    //New Code
    StringBuilder accountText = new StringBuilder();
    accountText.AppendLine(textbox1.Text);
    accountText.AppendLine(textbox2.Text);       
    accountText.AppendLine(textbox3.Text);
    accountText.AppendLine(checkbox.Checked.ToString().ToLowerInvariant());
    //Above line assumes you want a trailing newline
    System.IO.File.WriteAllText(accountsSettingsFile, accountText.toString());
}

Of course, this is pretty boring and isn't particularly scaleable, if you wanted to generate a dynamic page with multiple accounts being entered at once, you could use Page.FindControl to loop through your text boxes and append all of them to the file.

Upvotes: 1

pasnik
pasnik

Reputation: 26

var checked = checkBox.Checked ? "true" : "false";
var textToBeSaved = string.Format("{0}\n{1}\n{2}\n{3}", textBox1.Text, textBox2.Text, textBox3.Text,  checked)

Upvotes: 1

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