Show Text Files Content in Textbox using Listbox

Question

What am trying to do is, "I want Listbox2 to be populated with all the .txt files in Startuppath (each file being a line), and when i select each file in the Listbox, the selected file content should open in a textbox". The following code aims to:

1. Populate listbox2 with .txt files in StartupPath
2. Enable the whole content of selected file/entry show in textbox Public Sub New()
   InitializeComponent()
   Dim dir = New DirectoryInfo(Application.StartupPath)
   For Each file In dir.GetFiles("*.txt")
   ListBox2.Items.Add(file)
   Next
   ListBox2.DisplayMember = "Name"
   End Sub Private Sub listBox2_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
   Dim fileName As String = (CType(ListBox2.SelectedItem, FileInfo)).FullName
   If File.Exists(fileName) Then
   TxtNotePad.Text = File.ReadAllText(fileName)
   End If
   ListBox2.Visible = False
   End Sub THE PROBLEM

After implementing the foregoing code, the Listbox was populated accordingly, but when I selected an entry, the textbox shows nothing, appearing empty. What could have gone wrong? Would appreciate any solution to this. Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi

Here is an example to do the same. I suggest you trace your own code to see what/why it isn't working as you expect. Are you familiar with using BreakPoints etc?

This is a stand alone example. The Form1 only has ListBox1 and TextBox1 (multiline) on it.

Option Strict On
Option Explicit On
Public Class Form1
    ' these variable would likely be set from user
    ' selecting the folder with (say) a FolderBrowser
    ' but just hard coded here for this example
    Dim fold As String = My.Computer.FileSystem.SpecialDirectories.Desktop
    Dim files() As String = IO.Directory.GetFiles(fold, "*.txt")
    Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        ListBox1.Items.AddRange(files)
    End Sub
    Private Sub ListBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles ListBox1.SelectedIndexChanged
        Dim file As String = ListBox1.SelectedItem.ToString
        TextBox1.Text = IO.File.ReadAllText(file)
    End Sub
End Class