Question

I’m trying to do the following:

1. Store items from ComboBox in My.Settings (datatype doesn’t matter, but need suggestions).
2. Retrieve these items to populate a ComboBox on formload.
3. Also display these items (1 item per line) in TextBox, where I can edit and save the edits to both My.Settings and the ComboBox.

I’m a little lost, how should I go about doing this?

Existing Code:

    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

        Labels.LoadSettings()

        txtNumOfLabels.Text = Labels.numOfLabels

        cboItem.Items.Clear()
        For Each s As String In Labels.items
            cboItem.Items.Add(s)
        Next

    End Sub

    Public Shared items As New Specialized.StringCollection

    Shared Sub LoadSettings()
            Try
                items = My.Settings("Items")
            Catch ex As Exception
                MsgBox(ex.Message, MsgBoxStyle.Exclamation)
            End Try
        End Sub


 Private Sub Options_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        For Each s As String In Labels.items
            txtItems.AppendText(s + Environment.NewLine)
        Next
    End Sub

 Private Sub btnSave_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnSave.Click
        Dim itemCollection As New Specialized.StringCollection
        For Each s As String In txtItems.Lines
            itemCollection.Add(s)
        Next

        My.Settings("Items") = itemCollection
        My.Settings.Save()
        Labels.LoadSettings()

        Form1.cboItem.Items.Clear()
        For Each s As String In Labels.items
            Form1.cboItem.Items.Add(s)
        Next

        Me.Close()
    End Sub

But this code won’t save the values properly, or display them properly in the combobox or textbox.

Answer 1

You could use a StringCollection type for your setting, you may need the following imports statement in your code for the StringCollection to be available: Imports System.Collections.Specialized

You can then use this StringCollection as the DataSource for the combobox.

Edit: Saw in your code that you already use StringCollection. Good. Now why don’t you access your setting like this?

My.Settings.Items = itemCollection

This way you’re sure not to make a typing mistake, and you’re also sure that you setting actually exists. Also did you try stepping through the code to check if your setting is actually saved or not?