So far, the List is my favorite sort of array in C#.  It has the benefits of

• being obvious in naming
• you do not have to know the size when it is declared – the List can expand or contract as needed
• adding items to the array is quite simple, as is looping through the array
• finding items in the list is easy as well

The basic List syntax is this

List<string> lstContactList = new List<string>();

At first the syntax looks a bit off, what with the odd angle brackets<> and the () at the very end of the declaration, but that is the only counter-intuitive part of the List.  Please note, a list can hold any type of object or type, not just strings.

To add to the list simply use the .Add syntax, for example

lstContactList.Add (“Bob Raindorf”);.

You can find the index of a particular list item by simply using this syntax:

lstContactList.IndexOf(“Bob Raindorf”);

Once you identify the  identified, you can replace the value of the list item quite simply by

lstContactList[lstContactList.IndexOf("Bob Raindorf")] = “Robert Raindorf”;

If you want to loop through the list, just do this

foreach (string str in lstContactList)
{
InsertToDB(str);
}

To clear the list, just do this

lstContactList.Clear();

That’s all I need to remember (for now anyway), hopefully the act of writing this pushed it into long term memory.

The Cause: I originally omitted crucial line
gv.Columns.Clear();

in the code sample below.    For whatever reason I got it stuck in my head that the data was doubling, not the columns.

The Solution: Just add in the .Clear() line of code to the Gridview population routine and the problem is solved.

The Code:

All the code you need in the .aspx page:
<asp:GridView ID=”gv” AllowSorting=”true” runat=”server” AutoGenerateColumns=”False” onsorting=”gv_Sorting”></asp:GridView>

All the code you need to initially populate the GridView in the .cs pages

    private DataSet GenDataSet()
    {
        // Delcare a DataSet and Table
        DataSet ds = new DataSet();
        DataTable dt = new DataTable();
        DataRow dtRow;

        dt.Columns.Add("MNumber");
        dt.Columns.Add("Legal Name");
        dt.Columns.Add("Email");
        dt.Columns.Add("Level");

        dtRow = dt.NewRow();
        dtRow["MNumber"] = "A"; ;
        dtRow["Legal Name"] = "A";
        dtRow["Email"] = "A";
        dtRow["Level"] = "A";
        dt.Rows.Add(dtRow);

        dtRow = dt.NewRow();
        dtRow["MNumber"] = "B"; ;
        dtRow["Legal Name"] = "B";
        dtRow["Email"] = "B";
        dtRow["Level"] = "B";
        dt.Rows.Add(dtRow);

        dtRow = dt.NewRow();
        dtRow["MNumber"] = "C"; ;
        dtRow["Legal Name"] = "C";
        dtRow["Email"] = "C";
        dtRow["Level"] = "C";
        dt.Rows.Add(dtRow);

        dtRow = dt.NewRow();
        dtRow["MNumber"] = "D"; ;
        dtRow["Legal Name"] = "D";
        dtRow["Email"] = "D";
        dtRow["Level"] = "D";
        dt.Rows.Add(dtRow);

        dtRow = dt.NewRow();
        dtRow["MNumber"] = "E"; ;
        dtRow["Legal Name"] = "E";
        dtRow["Email"] = "E";
        dtRow["Level"] = "E";
        dt.Rows.Add(dtRow);

        ds.Tables.Add(dt);

        //note this is columns
        gv.Columns.Clear();
        foreach (DataColumn col in ds.Tables[0].Columns)
        {
            BoundField bfNew = new BoundField();
            //Initalize the DataField value.
            bfNew.DataField = col.ColumnName;
            //Initialize the HeaderText field value.
            bfNew.HeaderText = col.ColumnName;
            bfNew.SortExpression = col.ColumnName;
            //Add the newly created bound field to the GridView.
            gv.Columns.Add(bfNew);
        }
        return ds;
    }

That’s it!

photo credit: JanneM

<div id=”HomeNavItem” class=”TopNav SelectedNav”>Home</div>

In other words, you’re just putting them in the same class declaration.  I’ve been doing this for years and I’ve never done that before.

1. Open up your template document in word, and put any target areas in special Brackets, the text would read something like “I, [FULLNAME] do hereby affirm that”.  I found that the target area had to be in uppercase, I’m not sure why
2. Go to “Save As Html, Filtered”, and save it in a writeable directory.
3. In your C# code, first load the entire document into a string
4. Convert that string into an instance of StringBuilder
5. Use the StringBuilder Replace function, it would look something like this –  sb.Replace(“[FULLNAME]“, strFullName);
6. Create a TextWriter, and write the StringBuilder to it – make sure you’re saving it with a “.doc” extension.
7. Close the TextWriter

All told, the code looks like this

//Create a new filename

string strFileName = System.Guid.NewGuid().ToString();

string strPathRoot = “d:\\domains\\MyDomain\\Word\\”;

string strPath = strPathRoot + “TemplateHtml.doc”;

string str = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(strPath);

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

sb.AppendLine(s);

//replace the text

sb.Replace(“[FULLNAME]“, strFullName);

//save it out

TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter(strPathRoot + strFileName + “.doc”);

// write a line of text to the file

tw.WriteLine(sb.ToString());

// close it

tw.Close();

tw.Dispose();

That’s it!

photo credit: pvera

The aspx code is as follows

<strong>Section Name</strong>
<asp:TextBox ID="tbBox" runat="server" Width="1" BorderColor="White" BackColor="White" BorderStyle="None" />
<asp:CustomValidator ID="cvBox" ValidateEmptyText="true" runat="server" ControlToValidate="tbBox" Display="none" ErrorMessage="<b>Required Field Missing</b><br />You must select at least one option" SetFocusOnError="true" ValidationGroup="Main" onservervalidate="cvBox_ServerValidate" />
<ajaxToolkit:ValidatorCalloutExtender ID="vceBox" runat="server" TargetControlID="cvBox" Width="300" />

<br />

<asp:CheckBoxList ID=”cblForms” runat=”server” RepeatColumns=”2″ RepeatDirection=”Horizontal”>
<asp:ListItem Text=”Option A” Value=”A” />
<asp:ListItem Text=”Option B” Value=”B” />
<asp:ListItem Text=”Option C” Value=”C” />
<asp:ListItem Text=”Option D” Value=”D” />
</asp:CheckBoxList>

Please note, the control that I am validating is actually a 1 pixel wide textbox that one should not type in.

The server validate code is this

protected void cvBox_ServerValidate(object source, ServerValidateEventArgs args)
{
string strCB = CBLValueGet(cblForms);
if (strCB.Length!=0)
{
args.IsValid = true;
}
else
{
args.IsValid = false;
}
}

My ValueGet routine (it loops though everything and makes sure that at least one item was selected is

public static string CBLValueGet(System.Web.UI.WebControls.CheckBoxList list)
{
string strValue = "";
for (int counter = 0; counter < list.Items.Count; counter++)
{
if (list.Items[counter].Selected)
{
strValue += list.Items[counter].Value + ",";
}
}
if (strValue.Length - 1 < 0)
{
strValue = "";
}
else
{
strValue = strValue.Remove(strValue.Length - 1, 1);
}

return strValue;
}

The part of the code that fires after the main submit button is pressed is as follows

string strCB = Utility.CBLValueGet(cblForms);
char[] sep = { ',' };
string[] ProdList = strCB.Split(sep);
foreach (string str in ProdList)
{
if (str.Length != 0)
{
//soemtihg happens here with the str value;
}
}

That’s it!