Data Entry Form Help

[mikamika]

Hi folks,

 

First post (of many probably)

 

Some background: 20 years of UNIX/C, only 4 months of OOP

 

I'm using VS.NET 7, VB windows form application

 

What would be the best approach for building a data entry screen for entering invoice details?

 

Assuming a minimum of 2 columns: product & description

 

Assuming unlimited rows

 

On each row one should be able to pick a product (combo box, drop down list or something of that nature), have it's description show up in the description column on the same row.

 

Is a Datagrid apropos?

 

For what it's worth, my data comes from text files, read in via fileget, which can populate a simple array or any other data structure that is appropriate for the task.

 

Some guide lines / suggestions would be appreciated !

 

Thanks

 

Marc

[Robby]

For data entry I prefer textBoxes not datagrids, but that's just me. With this approach there's no need to bind the textBoxes, only the DropDowns that contain items from files or tables.

[mikamika]

...textboxes and combos

 

likewise, I prefer this method, I guess I was blinded by my own thoughts as I didn't want to create 50 rows of Combo boxes and text boxes.

 

Now I realise I only need one row, have the data accumulate in an array and have this array displayed in a scrollable list box with click to edit/delete functionality.

 

Marc

[Robby]

"as I didn't want to create 50 rows of Combo boxes and text boxes."

 

That's scary :) Like you said, one row is plenty during data entry, you can do the multi-row thing using a datagrid when a user wants to view the history and such.