Question

I have a Windows Form in a VB.NET program with a property of “TournID“. The ID will be passed in when the form is created by a button pressed.

Here is the property stub:

Private _TournID As Integer
Public Property TournID() As Integer
    Get
        Return _TournID
    End Get
    Set(ByVal value As Integer)
        _TournID = value
    End Set
End Property

What I would need help doing is when that form loads, if that property is set, to pull information from a database with a TournamentID‘s involving that TournID. Else, if TournID is not set, do nothing but show the form with blank textboxes or default values, etc.

Answer 1

You can create an overloaded constructor that allows you to either create a new (empty) tournament, or load an existing tournament:

You can call it two ways:

' to create a new tournament
Dim newTournament = new Tournament

' to load an existing tournament with id = 1234
Dim newTournament = new Tournament(1234)

Something like this:

Class Tournament
    Private _TournID As Integer
    Public Sub New ()
       ' do nothing, this is a new object
    End Sub
    Public Sub New (TournId as Integer)
        ' this is an existing object, load from the database
        _TournID = TournID
        LoadTournamentDetails(TournID)
    End Sub

    Public Property TournID() As Integer
        Get
            Return _TournID
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As Integer)
            _TournID = value
        End Set
    End Property
    Private Sub LoadTournamentDetails(TournID as Integer)
        '...
    End Sub
End Class