Data Storage Suggestions??

[Brian P. Hammer]

I load a bunch of data from a dataset (about 10 rows with 125 columns) and
with the dataset rows, I perform a bunch (about 75) of calculations. The
results of all this are loaded into a third party (C1 FlexGrid) grid. I am
trying to figure out the best way to store all this data so that it is
easier to work with and perform calculations as users edit the grid.
Currently, I have to do lookups back to the datasets and reference each
row/column of the grid. I guess I am looking for some sort of collection
class but the .Net help hasn't provided any real clues as to the direction
to go. A thought was to have some sort of dataset hold all the combined
data and calculations. Before I head off in any direction, I thought I'd get
suggestions. Any you have would be great.

Thanks,
Brian

 

[SP]

I load a bunch of data from a dataset (about 10 rows with 125 columns) and
with the dataset rows, I perform a bunch (about 75) of calculations. The
results of all this are loaded into a third party (C1 FlexGrid) grid. I am
trying to figure out the best way to store all this data so that it is
easier to work with and perform calculations as users edit the grid.
Currently, I have to do lookups back to the datasets and reference each
row/column of the grid. I guess I am looking for some sort of collection
class but the .Net help hasn't provided any real clues as to the direction
to go. A thought was to have some sort of dataset hold all the combined
data and calculations. Before I head off in any direction, I thought I'd
get suggestions. Any you have would be great.

Without a complete understanding of your situation here are a few thoughts.
I am relating this to similar situations I come across. I think of it as the
business object / display mismatch problem.

As I see it you start with data from a few datasets and then calculate and
create another dataset from this information and then display this dataset
in a grid. After a change is made in the grid you then have to translate
this back to the appropriate dataset / datarow / datacolumn and update and
recalculate and then display the updated data in the grid. This can be very
tedious (and datasets don't help!!).

The additional layer of getting the data into a displayable format is
necessary because the grid is forcing you into a row / column paradigm that
is mismatched with your more hierarchical object based data. In these
situations I avoid a databound grid and use an unbound grid. For example I
might have a collection that contains 10 objects but when displayed it will
be only 4 rows. That is because for display purposes I want to place the
information from 2 or more objects on the same row because the information
is from the same date. So objects containing date and value like 1/1/05 -
22, 1/1/05 - 34, 1/2/05 - 44, 1/2/05 - 23 may need to be displayed like
1/1/05 - 22 - 34 - 56, 1/2/05 - 44 - 23 - 67 (a total also needs to be
displayed in this example). You lay out the data as you iterate your
collections placing the values where you want. Unbound grids offer the
advantage of tagging each cell with the object that is displayed in that
cell so you can get back to the original object easily.

If you need or want to stay with a data bound grid then go with collection
classes and design your objects so that you can get back to the calculation
objects easily from the displayed row object. In the example above
MyCalculationClass has a Date and an Amount property. From these objects we
create a collection of Display objects. MyDisplayClass has Date, Amount1,
Amount2, Amount3 and Total properties but more importantly also has
references to the "originating" MyCalculationClasses so that when Amount1 is
edited I can delegate this edit directly to the correct MyCalculation class.

HTH

SP

 

[Brian P. Hammer]

SP - Thanks for the feedback. You are on-track with my issue except the
fact that my grid is unbound. Here's what I basically do. Load a dataset,
add this info to a temp dataset, load info from another dataset and then
merge the data into one dataset. I then loop through the rows and and
manually populate my grid, adding in grid rows where needed for the
calculations. Here is kind of the way that I load everything up...


For Each item As String In My.Forms.AircraftSelector.names
Me.TblAircraftSpecificTableAdapter.FillByAircraftModel(Me.LEADDataSet.tblAircraftSpecific,
item.ToString)
ds.Merge(LEADDataSet)
Next item
LEADDataSet.Merge(ds)

For r = 0 To Me.LEADDataSet.tblAircraftSpecific.Rows.Count - 1
intAircraftID =
CInt(Me.LEADDataSet.tblAircraftSpecific.Rows(r)("IDAircraftSpecific").ToString)
Me.TblModificationTableAdapter.FillBy(Me.LEADDataSet.tblModification,
intAircraftID)
Me.TblAircraftInspectionTableAdapter.FillBy(Me.LEADDataSet.tblAircraftInspection,
intAircraftID)
intRunMods = Me.LEADDataSet.tblModification.Rows.Count
If intRunMods > intKeepMods Then intKeepMods = intRunMods
intRunInsp = Me.LEADDataSet.tblAircraftInspection.Rows.Count
If intRunInsp > intKeepInsp Then intKeepInsp = intRunInsp
Next


'Then I begin to load the grid...


For i = 0 To intRows
Me.TblAPUTableAdapter.FillBy(Me.LEADDataSet.tblAPU, CInt(GetAircraft(i,
"APUID", True)))
Me.TblEngineModelTableAdapter.FillBy(Me.LEADDataSet.tblEngineModel,
CInt(GetAircraft(i, "EngineID", True)))
Me.TblAircraftCategoryTableAdapter.FillBy(Me.LEADDataSet.tblAircraftCategory,
CInt(GetAircraft(i, "CategoryID", True)))
Me.TblGlobalVariablesTableAdapter.Fill(Me.GlobalVariablesDataSet.tblGlobalVariables)
blnHasAPU = HasAPU() 'Check for an AircraftSpecific APU
blnHasEngine = HasEngine() 'Check for an AircraftSpecific Engine

flxRow = 1
strManMod = GetAircraft(i, "AircraftManufacturer") & " " & GetAircraft(i,
"AircraftModel")
Me.txtStatus.Text = "Loading " & strManMod
Me.flxAllData.SetData(flxRow, j, strManMod)

Me.flxAllData.SetData(flxRow, 0, "Liability Insurance")
'Me.flxAllData.Rows(k).Style = styCurrency
Me.flxAllData.Rows(flxRow).AllowEditing = True
Me.flxAllData.SetData(flxRow, flxClmn,
CDec(GetAircraftCategory("LiabilityInsurance", True)))
rLiabilityInsurance = flxRow
flxRow += 1

Me.flxAllData.SetData(flxRow, 0, "Number of Pilots")
'Me.flxAllData.Rows(k).Style = styNumber
Me.flxAllData.Rows(flxRow).AllowEditing = True
Me.flxAllData.SetData(flxRow, flxClmn,
CInt(GetAircraftCategory("CrewNumber", True)))
rCrewNumber = flxRow
flxRow += 1

'END OF Sample

flxAllData is the Grid and GetAircraftCategory is simply a function to
return the value from the dataset specific row.

Now, when it comes to calculations, I have to reference the row and column
to get each values I want to use in my calculation.

Another thing I want to do is to set up the loading of all the data and
calculations over to another thread and then display the data to the grid.
I will look more at the collection class but thought I had eliminated it for
one reason or another.

Regards,
Brian

 

[SP]

SP - Thanks for the feedback. You are on-track with my issue except the
fact that my grid is unbound. Here's what I basically do. Load a
dataset, add this info to a temp dataset, load info from another dataset
and then merge the data into one dataset. I then loop through the rows
and and manually populate my grid, adding in grid rows where needed for
the calculations. Here is kind of the way that I load everything up...


For Each item As String In My.Forms.AircraftSelector.names

Me.TblAircraftSpecificTableAdapter.FillByAircraftModel(Me.LEADDataSet.tblAircraftSpecific,
item.ToString)
ds.Merge(LEADDataSet)
Next item
LEADDataSet.Merge(ds)

For r = 0 To Me.LEADDataSet.tblAircraftSpecific.Rows.Count - 1
intAircraftID =
CInt(Me.LEADDataSet.tblAircraftSpecific.Rows(r)("IDAircraftSpecific").ToString)
Me.TblModificationTableAdapter.FillBy(Me.LEADDataSet.tblModification,
intAircraftID)

Me.TblAircraftInspectionTableAdapter.FillBy(Me.LEADDataSet.tblAircraftInspection,
intAircraftID)
intRunMods = Me.LEADDataSet.tblModification.Rows.Count
If intRunMods > intKeepMods Then intKeepMods = intRunMods
intRunInsp = Me.LEADDataSet.tblAircraftInspection.Rows.Count
If intRunInsp > intKeepInsp Then intKeepInsp = intRunInsp
Next


'Then I begin to load the grid...


For i = 0 To intRows
Me.TblAPUTableAdapter.FillBy(Me.LEADDataSet.tblAPU, CInt(GetAircraft(i,
"APUID", True)))
Me.TblEngineModelTableAdapter.FillBy(Me.LEADDataSet.tblEngineModel,
CInt(GetAircraft(i, "EngineID", True)))

Me.TblAircraftCategoryTableAdapter.FillBy(Me.LEADDataSet.tblAircraftCategory,
CInt(GetAircraft(i, "CategoryID", True)))

Me.TblGlobalVariablesTableAdapter.Fill(Me.GlobalVariablesDataSet.tblGlobalVariables)
blnHasAPU = HasAPU() 'Check for an AircraftSpecific APU
blnHasEngine = HasEngine() 'Check for an AircraftSpecific Engine

flxRow = 1
strManMod = GetAircraft(i, "AircraftManufacturer") & " " & GetAircraft(i,
"AircraftModel")
Me.txtStatus.Text = "Loading " & strManMod
Me.flxAllData.SetData(flxRow, j, strManMod)

Me.flxAllData.SetData(flxRow, 0, "Liability Insurance")
'Me.flxAllData.Rows(k).Style = styCurrency
Me.flxAllData.Rows(flxRow).AllowEditing = True
Me.flxAllData.SetData(flxRow, flxClmn,
CDec(GetAircraftCategory("LiabilityInsurance", True)))
rLiabilityInsurance = flxRow
flxRow += 1

Me.flxAllData.SetData(flxRow, 0, "Number of Pilots")
'Me.flxAllData.Rows(k).Style = styNumber
Me.flxAllData.Rows(flxRow).AllowEditing = True
Me.flxAllData.SetData(flxRow, flxClmn,
CInt(GetAircraftCategory("CrewNumber", True)))
rCrewNumber = flxRow
flxRow += 1

'END OF Sample

flxAllData is the Grid and GetAircraftCategory is simply a function to
return the value from the dataset specific row.

Now, when it comes to calculations, I have to reference the row and column
to get each values I want to use in my calculation.

Another thing I want to do is to set up the loading of all the data and
calculations over to another thread and then display the data to the grid.
I will look more at the collection class but thought I had eliminated it
for one reason or another.

Regards,
Brian

When I look at the code example I see a need to separate out your business
objects, the database interaction, and the presentation. I have never been a
fan of datasets and perhaps moving away from them will then allow you to
build an object model that represents the relationships between the various
business objects. Then the lookup / functions that you are calling as you
load the grid can be encapsulated within your business objects. Then your
loading of the grid could be more like (my VB is a little rusty!!)

For Each Aircraft aircraft In Aircrafts
Me.flxAllData.SetData(flxRow, 0, aircraft.Manufacturer)
Me.flxAllData.SetData(flxRow, 1, aircraft.Model")
End For

Having a business object model allows you to get to the information you need
by navigating from object to object like aircraft.Manufacturer.Models.Count.
So given an aircraft you can easily get to the number of different aircraft
manufacturered by the maker of that aircraft.

HTH

SP

 

[Brian P. Hammer]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll do some reading into business objects. What
you say makes sense.