Write contains of listbox

How can I write contains of 3 listboxes into 1 file without replacing each other's data. I can't write it to specific line, because listbox contains could be modified by user, it could be only one line in listbox, but it could be 20, so I need to get last line that was written by listbox 1, then write listbox 2 and before writting listbox 3, get last line that was written by listbox 2....how????

Oh, then I need to read all that saved data into appropriate listbox when form is loaded

A quick (and easy) way would be to use an INI file (GetPrivateProfileString etc API's).

You could then have sections such as :

[List1]
NumListItems=5
ListItem1=blah
ListItem2=Blah

etc

[List2]
NumListItems=2
ListItem1=

etc

This way, you can easily get the number of items, the last item and still write them in any order you like.


Chris Eastwood

CodeGuru - the website for developers
http://codeguru.developer.com/vb

Or you could use XML - if you have IE5 installed, you can easily parse a simple XML File such as :

<LISTBOXES>
<LISTBOX id="1">
<ITEM>List Item 1</ITEM>
<ITEM>List Item 1</ITEM>
<ITEM>List Item 1</ITEM>
</LISTBOX>
<LISTBOX id="2">
<ITEM>List Item 1</ITEM>
<ITEM>List Item 1</ITEM>
</LISTBOX>
</LISTBOXES>

etc - a good place to learn how to parse this file using the M$ XML parser is http://msdn.microsoft.com/xml


Chris Eastwood

CodeGuru - the website for developers
http://codeguru.developer.com/vb

yeah I was thinking about INI, but I was wondering how to get every item from it into listbox, well thanks for advice, I'll try to figure that out

If you use the example I posted :

(using GetPrivateProfileString) :

1. Get NumListItems from ini file
2. For x = 1 to NumListItems
3. Use GetPrivateProfileString for 'ListItem' & x
4. List1.AddItem that string
5. Next

- shouldn't be too difficult - although it means that anyone can edit the file and see how it's structured (and hack it if they feel so inclined)


Chris Eastwood

CodeGuru - the website for developers
http://codeguru.developer.com/vb

Thanks again. LOL, I don't care if user hack saved file.....it's their problem if he/she will, they'll just have to re-enter all the data back :)