Question

I use a textbox with AutoCompleteCustomSource. I want to save all the entries within the textbox and autocomplete them when the user enters a matching value.

When the application is closed then re-opened these values are lost.

By now I have a code like this

puclic AutoCompleteStringCollection emails ;
//OnFormCreate 
...
 emails = new AutoCompleteStringCollection();
...


//OnUserInteraction
...
 emails.Add(EMail);
...

How can I save and reload the list?

This is a convenient feature, not a critical one, so I need an easy code: “less is more”.

Answer 1

You can easily save it as XML:

var xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(AutoCompleteStringCollection));
using (var writer = new StreamWriter("emails.xml"))
{
    xs.Serialize(writer, emails);
}

To load the list from XML:

var xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(AutoCompleteStringCollection));
using (var reader = new StreamReader("emails.xml"))
{
    emails = (AutoCompleteStringCollection)xs.Deserialize(reader);
}

You could probably save it in the project’s user settings too