Saving & Opening Data of Windows form in a File

Question

Hello everyone !

First of all i am kinda new to C# programming, so i hope this is not taken as a fail question in C# forums.

I'm having a difficult time trying to figure out my Windows Form Application.

At the moment my Windows Form Application contains various containers, menus and common controls like check boxes,  I'm also including a DatagridView element and a small DataTable.

What i am trying to do is simple, in mind, but i haven't been able to make it work.

This are the simple steps of what i am trying to achieve:

1. Run my Windows Form Application.
2. Input some data into the DataTable, change some values in rows, check & uncheck some text boxes, etc. 
3. Click the File Save button, save a file with the information and close the application. 
4. Run my application and Open the file i just saved, read the file and display the information of my DataTable, checkboxes, textFields, etc.

And that's about it. I'm not planning to implement a database or something, i just want to be able to save my work in my Application and open it later.

I've read about SaveFile and OpenFile Dialogs, but actually i'm not sure how can i manage the part where by some programming functions i save a file with the information in my Application and interpret the file to update the data.

Specifically, How can i program a function that saves a file with the data on my DataTable?, i mean saving them as a string, or as numbers that i'll interpret when i open the file. I am confused about it.

Thanks

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Isaac

Answer 1

The DataTable class has (several overloaded) WriteXml and ReadXml methods, that you could use to serialise the data to/from a file.

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--pogo (pat)

Answer 2

You could also use the Settings object (look under your project properties, there is a tab called Settings where you can add one).

 

You could also use a custom class and use a BinaryFormatter to serialize the data to disk.