visual studio .net and access

Question

Are there any tutorials on simply creating a blank form on which I can create text boxes to connect to a Access database? I have found umpteen sample projects and tutorials over the last few weeks but none of them have a straightforward guide of setting up this simple selection. I have of course searched extensivly, should I just go back to VB6? I am very tempted to..

akbhattacharya · Answer

Hi Rickyo, Basically what you need: -> Design the interface; -> Get connected to the database; -> Retrieve the data and display. 1) Interface: Say you have a table "Emp" in an access db, file name "Emp.mdb" Table Emp has two fields; "EmpId" and "EmpName". Lets take a combo box and populate it with the existing "EmpId"s. There is also one TextBox to show "EmpName" and a button "Search". When a user selects a EmpId from the comboBox and hit Search the corresponding EmpName should appear in the TextBox. 2) Connection: First (in Form_Load) you have to get connected to the data base and populate the ComboBox with the existing EmpId's. This is not at all difficult, use the following approach: Dim OleDbCon1 As OleDbConnection (Declare it outside as global) Dim ConStr As String cmdStr = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=//the address of the mdb file//;Persist Security Info=False" The following code will be inside Form_Load..... OleDbCon1 = New OleDbConnection() OleDbCon1.ConnectionString = ConStr Now populate the combobox with username field. 'First clear the ComboBox ComboBox1.Items.Clear() 'Open the database OleDbCon1.Open() 'Prepare the SELECT statement Dim CmdText As String="SELECT EmpId FROM Emp" 'Create a OleDbCommand Dim Cmd As OleDbCommand = New OleDbCommand() Cmd.Connection = OleDbCon1 Cmd.CommandText = CmdText 'Use a data reader to read the data from that field. Dim DataReadr As OleDbDataReader 'Create the data reader and read data DataReadr = Cmd.ExecuteReader() 'Add items to ComboBox While DataReadr.Read() ComboBox1.Items.Add(RTrim(DataReadr.GetString(0))) End While 'Finally close everything DataReadr.Close() Cmd.Dispose() OleDbCon1.Close() All of the code so far will be in ur Form_Load event. 3) Display Data: Next part is to search for that EmpId (Put it in the button click event of Search button). 'Variable to store the Selected EmpId. Dim EId as string = ComboBox1.text 'Now here again create the connection... OleDbCon1 = New OleDbConnection() OleDbCon1.ConnectionString = ConStr 'Open the database OleDbCon1.Open() 'Prepare the SELECT statement Dim CmdText As String="SELECT EmpName FROM Emp WHERE EmpId ='" & EId & "'" 'Create a OleDbCommand Dim Cmd As OleDbCommand = New OleDbCommand() Cmd.Connection = OleDbCon1 Cmd.CommandText = CmdText 'Use a data reader to read the EmpName from the table. Dim DataReadr As OleDbDataReader 'Create the data reader and read data DataReadr = Cmd.ExecuteReader() While DataReadr.Read() TextBox1.Text=RTrim(DataReadr.GetString(0)) End While 'Close the database DataReadr.Close() Cmd.Dispose() OleDbCon1.Close() **** Note: Dont forget to import System.Data.OleDb at the starting. (Imports System.Data.OleDb) I guess you got everything here. Try it and let me know... Thank you. Baan