Question

I am using a listview, and trying to populate using a file.
I need the file to be read in as soon as the form starts.

private void mainForm_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        //get file read in
        if (File.Exists("../../MealDeliveries.txt"))
        {
            StreamReader sr = new StreamReader("../../MealDeliveries.txt");
            //first line is delivery name
            string strDeliveryName = sr.ReadLine();
            do
            {
                //other lines
                Delivery d = new Delivery(strDeliveryName, sr.ReadLine(), sr.ReadLine(), sr.ReadLine(), sr.ReadLine(), sr.ReadLine(), sr.ReadLine());
                mainForm.myDeliveries.Add(d);
                //check for further values
                strDeliveryName = sr.ReadLine();
                //stop if no more values
            } while (strDeliveryName != null);
            displayDeliveries();
        }
    }


private void displayDeliveries()
    {
        lstDeliveryDetails.Items.Clear();
        foreach (Delivery d in mainForm.myDeliveries)
        {
            lstDeliveryDetails.Items.Add(d.DeliveryName);
        }
    }

The listview isn’t displaying anything, although the file is definately there!

Answer 1

Yes, it should assuming that the file is in the place you think it is. Are you positive that the file exists?

Try this. It will at least confirm whether or not the file is found.

private void mainForm_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) 
{
    string fileName = @"..\..\MealDeliveries.txt";

    if (!File.Exists(fileName))
    {
        MessageBox.Show("File not found!");
        return;
    }

    using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(fileName))
    {
        //first line is delivery name 
        string strDeliveryName = sr.ReadLine(); 
        while (strDeliveryName != null)
        { 
            //other lines 
            Delivery d = new Delivery(strDeliveryName, sr.ReadLine(),
                                      sr.ReadLine(), sr.ReadLine(),
                                      sr.ReadLine(), sr.ReadLine(),
                                      sr.ReadLine());
            mainForm.myDeliveries.Add(d);

            //check for further values
            strDeliveryName = sr.ReadLine();
        }
    }
    displayDeliveries();
}

Another thing to watch out for is reading lines in as a string to pass to your business object (Delivery). You might find it better to use some sort of serialization format provided by XmlSerializer or one of the file formats supported by Marcos Meli’s FileHelpers library. Either way, something more robust than reading in strings would be desirable.