I'm trying to get all data from an SQL table and store it in a List using the C# programming language.
the SQL statement I'm using is:
private string cmdShowEmployees = "SELECT * FROM Employees;";
This is being used in the same class as a function
public List<string> showAllIdData()
{
List<string> id = new List<string>();
using (sqlConnection = getSqlConnection())
{
sqlCommand.Connection = sqlConnection;
sqlCommand.CommandText = cmdShowEmployees;
SqlDataReader reader = sqlCommand.ExecuteReader();
while (reader.Read()) {
id.Add(reader[0].ToString());
}
return id;
}
}
and here
public List<string> showAllActiveData()
{
List<string> active = new List<string>();
using (sqlConnection = getSqlConnection())
{
sqlCommand.Connection = sqlConnection;
sqlCommand.CommandText = cmdShowEmployees;
SqlDataReader reader = sqlCommand.ExecuteReader();
while (reader.Read()) {
active.Add(reader[1].ToString());
}
return active;
}
I would have to create 9 more functions this way in order to get all the data out of the Employees table. This seems very inefficient and I was wondering if there was a more elegant way to do this.
I know using an adapter is one way to do it but I don't think it is possible to convert a filled adapter to a list, list list etc.
SqlDataAdapter adapter = sqlDataCollection.getAdapter();
DataSet dataset = new DataSet();
adapter.Fill(dataset, "idEmployees");
dataGridView1.DataSource = dataset;
dataGridView1.DataMember = "idEmployees";
Any ideas?
If you must use the reader in this way, why not create an object which holds the table row data.
public class SomeComplexItem
{
public string SomeColumnValue { get; set;}
public string SomeColumnValue2 { get; set;}
public string SomeColumnValue3 { get; set;}
public string SomeColumnValue4 { get; set;}
}
That way you can loop through with your reader as follows:
public List<SomeComplexItem> showAllActiveData()
{
List<SomeComplexItem> active = new List<SomeComplexItem>();
using (sqlConnection = getSqlConnection())
{
sqlCommand.Connection = sqlConnection;
sqlCommand.CommandText = cmdShowEmployees;
SqlDataReader reader = sqlCommand.ExecuteReader();
while (reader.Read())
{
var someComplexItem = new SomeComplexItem();
someComplexItem.SomeColumnValue = reader[1].ToString();
someComplexItem.SomeColumnValue2 = reader[2].ToString();
someComplexItem.SomeColumnValue3 = reader[3].ToString();
active.Add(someComplexItem);
}
return active;
}