[OT - Sorry] Ehh... Some Visual Basic help please...

[Psionicist]

I feel a little ashamed posting this, so please don't laugh
I don't know any good programming forum accepting newbie questions like this, so I'll ask here, okay?

I am working on a little program here and I have created everything important and I just have to fix some small helptext in a statusbar, and I want to create a function out of it.

That is, instead of writing millions of crap like this:

Private Sub Form_MouseMove(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
StatusBar1.SimpleText = ""
End Sub
Private Sub Text1_MouseMove(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
StatusBar1.SimpleText = "Your +12V rail..."
End Sub
Private Sub Text2_MouseMove(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
StatusBar1.SimpleText = "Your +5V rail..."
End Sub
Private Sub Text3_MouseMove(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
StatusBar1.SimpleText = "Your VIO (Voltage Input Output) rail. Normal values are 3.3, 3.45 and 3.56..."
End Sub
...
...
...
and so on...

...

I want to create a small function, lets call it HelpText, so I just have to write something like this in one function:
HelpText(Form) = ""
HelpText(Text1) = "Your +12V rail..."
HelpText(Text2) = "Your +5V rail..."
HelpText(Text3) = "Your VIO (Voltage Input Output) rail. Normal values are 3.3, 3.45 and 3.56..."

Ehh... How do I do that?

 

[Dalenthas]

Sorry, don't know how you'd go about making it appear in a statusbar without doing it the long way. Though text boxes have a propery called oh, shoot... umm... mouseovertext? I dunno, but they have a property that makes the little yellow box of appear when you put your mouse over it... lemme go check that out...

 

[Dalenthas]

ToolTipText! Thats what it is... but if your dead set with the statusbar, you'll have to do it the long way (or get someone who knows a bit more about VB than me...). I'd do it the long way anyway, I work around problems instead of trying to find the easy way around them.

 

[UD]

Use a different language. Say one which isn't VB, then I might know it. i refuse to touch the dark-code.

No, really...

 

[cbatt]

I hope this is useful

What you want to use is a Collection object (otherwise known as an Associative Array, or a Hash).

For reference go to:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vbenlr98/html/vaobjCollection.asp

Hopefully you can use the following implementation to start with. I didn't bother running it, so there may be some syntax errors, but the general idea is correct. Use the link I provided to find out more info.

Private Sub SetHelpText(strKey)
' instantiate a new collection object
Dim StatusTextCollection As New Collection
' add items to the collection object
' the format is:
' CollectionVariableName.Add "The data string that you want to display", "The 'key' which you want to use to refer to the data"
StatusTextCollection.Add "", "Form_MouseMove"
StatusTextCollection.Add "Your +12V rail...", "Text1_MouseMove"
StatusTextCollection.Add "Your +5V rail...", "Text2_MouseMove"

' to to set the StatusBar
StatusBar1.SimpleText = StatusTextCollection(strKey)
End Sub

EDIT:
I guess I should explain how to use it.

Simply call the subroutine in your code and pass in a value. The value that you pass in should correspond to the second element(the 'key') of the Add method.

For instance:
SetHelpText("Text1_MouseMove")

Should theorectically set StatusBar1.SimpleText to:
"Your +12V rail..." (without the quotes)

 

[Psionicist]

I'll try that! Thanks all!

I am building a diagnostic tool for analyzing the system voltages and I've created everything except for that stupid helpfunction I don't really need

Edit: Dang, that didn't work! I will use tooltiptext instead.

 

[cbatt]

what sort of error were you getting?