Using the ASP.NET Stringbuilder class

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Using ASP.NET Stringbuilder Class

I (Steve Schofield) recently put together a webpage that wrote out some formatted data. There are many ways the .NET framework presents in formatting the output to the webpage. One of the most efficient and flexible ways of doing such tasks is using the Stringbuilder class. Here is a simple example I used recently to build a simple table to output. This example uses MSDE and the pubs database.

The code

<%@ Page EnableSessionState="False" EnableViewState="False" Debug="False" Trace="False" strict="True" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Data" %>
<%@ Import NameSpace="System.Data.SqlClient" %>
<script language="vb" runat="server">
Sub Page_Load(sender as Object, e as EventArgs)
Dim i, k As Integer
dim theSQL as string = "SELECT au_id, au_lname, au_fname, phone, address, " & _
"city, state, zip, contract FROM Authors"
'I don't ever embed the connection string inside aspx page.
'Use the System.Configuration class to extract
'the value from the appSettings
Dim myConn as SqlConnection = new SqlConnection(ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings("DSN_pubs"))
dim ds as dataset = new dataset()
dim dt as datatable
dim adapter as sqldataadapter = new SqlDataAdapter(theSQL, myConn)

myConn.Open()
adapter.Fill(ds,"DataTable")
myConn.Close()

dt = ds.Tables("DataTable")

'Set two variables to the number of rows and columns the datatable has
Dim RowCount As Integer = dt.rows.count
Dim ColCount As Integer = dt.Columns.Count

'Loop through the datatable to format the output
Dim sb as StringBuilder = New StringBuilder()
sb.append( "<table border='1' width='80%'>" )
For i = 0 To RowCount - 1
sb.Append("<tr>")
For k = 0 To ColCount - 1
sb.Append("<td>")
sb.Append( dt.Rows(i).Item(k, DataRowVersion.Current).toString())
sb.Append( "</td>" )
Next
sb.Append("<tr>")
Next
sb.Append( "</table>")

'Output to the Label control that will show the output
Dim strOutput as String = sb.ToString()
lblCompany.Text = strOutput
'Uses a hyperlink server control to display a link
returnHome.NavigateUrl = "/aspnet/Default.aspx"
End Sub
</script>
<html>
<head><title>Using StringBuilder Class</title></head>
<body>
<asp:hyperlink id=returnHome runat="server">
Back to the Article
</asp:hyperlink>
<asp:label id="lblCompany" runat="server" />
</body>
</html>