Getting two bits of data into one c# windows form

Question

I have got the data from a text file to fill in the text boxes with the data. However I am trying to get an employees salary from another class into the text box and I am struggling to do so. My first class is the employee class with this code:

public class Employee
{
    string _firstName;
    string _lastName;
    string _address;
    string _postCode;
    string _phoneNumber;
    DateTime _dateOfBirth;

    public Employee()
    {
    }

    public Employee(string firstName, string lastName, string address, string postCode, string phoneNumber, DateTime dateOfBirth)
    {
        _firstName = firstName;
        _lastName = lastName;
        _address = address;
        _postCode = postCode;
        _phoneNumber = phoneNumber;
        _dateOfBirth = dateOfBirth;
    }

    public string firstName
    {
        get
        {
            return _firstName;
        }
        set
        {
            _firstName = value;
        }
    }

    public string lastName
    {
        get
        {
            return _lastName;
        }
        set
        {
            _lastName = value;
        }
    }

    public string address
    {
        get
        {
            return _address;
        }
        set
        {
            _address = value;
        }
    }

    public string postCode
    {
        get
        {
            return _postCode;
        }
        set
        {
            _postCode = value;
        }
    }

    public string phoneNumber
    {
        get
        {
            return _phoneNumber;
        }
        set
        {
            _phoneNumber = value;
        }
    }

    public DateTime dateOfBirth
    {
        get
        {
            return _dateOfBirth;
        }
        set
        {
            _dateOfBirth = value;
        }
    }

followed by the salaried class with this code:

 public class SalariedEmployee : Employee
 {
    decimal _salary;

    public SalariedEmployee(string firstName, string lastName, string 
   address, string postCode, string phoneNumber, DateTime dateOfBirth, 
 decimal salary) : base(firstName, lastName, address, postCode, phoneNumber, 
 dateOfBirth)
    {
        _salary = salary;
    }

    public decimal salary
    {
        get
        {
            return _salary;
        }
        set
        {
            _salary = value;
        }
    }
 }

this then goes onto the load method which is as follows:

public bool Load(string employeesFile)    
{
    List<string> lines = new List<string>();

    using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader("employees.txt"))
    {
        string line;
        while ((line = reader.ReadLine()) != null)
        {
            //Splitting the data using |
            string[] temp = line.Split('|');

            int year = Convert.ToInt32(temp[5]);
            int month = Convert.ToInt32(temp[6]);
            int day = Convert.ToInt32(temp[7]);

            //This is to populate an employees detials 
            Employee emp = new Employee
            {
                firstName = temp[0],
                lastName = temp[1],
                address = temp[2],
                postCode = temp[3],
                phoneNumber = temp[4],
                dateOfBirth = new DateTime(year, month, day)
            };

            //This class is from List, so I used the add method to add the employee.
            Add(emp);
        }
        return true;

and finally the form code:

public Salaried_Employee_Details(Employee emp)
{
    InitializeComponent();


    textBoxLastName.Text = emp.lastName;
    textBoxFirstName.Text = emp.firstName;
    textBoxAddress.Text = emp.address;
    textBoxPostCode.Text = emp.postCode;
    textBoxPhoneNumber.Text = emp.phoneNumber;
    dateTimeDateOfBirth.Text = emp.dateOfBirth.ToString();
    //textBoxSalary.Text = emp.salary;
}

with the work form here:

the format of the text file is here:

Smyth|Jack|London street, London City, London|01142325413|1990|3|21|37000

so how do I get the salaried data into the text box?

Answer 1

Looking at the split of your string into an array you either have no postal code or no number:

postCode = temp[3],
phoneNumber = temp[4],

Here are your indices of the array

Smyth|Jack|London street, London City, London|01142325413|1990|3|21|37000
  ^     ^                     ^                     ^       ^  ^  ^  ^
  |     |                     |                     |       |  |  |  |
  0     1                     2                     3       4  5  6  7

In this case 4 looks for me like a year!

If the salary is on the last position you need distinguish between a normal Employee and a SalariedEmployee In the firs case you do it like you do already and in the second case you need to create a SalariedEmployee object when loading your data:

int year = Convert.ToInt32(temp[4]);
int month = Convert.ToInt32(temp[5]);
int day = Convert.ToInt32(temp[6]);

SalariedEmployee emp = new SalariedEmployee
    {
        firstName = temp[1],
        lastName = temp[0],
        address = temp[2],
        phoneNumber = temp[3],
        dateOfBirth = new DateTime(year, month, day)
        salary = Convert.ToDecimal(temp[7]);
    };

EDIT: What you need to make this code work is a parameterless constructor in the SalariedEmployee class.

public SalariedEmployee()
{

}

or you need to use the constructor that you have written with all the parameters:

public SalariedEmployee(string firstName, string lastName, string
   address, string postCode, string phoneNumber, DateTime dateOfBirth,
 decimal salary)

which would look like this:

SalariedEmployee emp = new SalariedEmployee(temp[1], temp[0],temp[2],
                               "I don't know where your postcode is", 
                               temp[3],new DateTime(year, month, day),
                               Convert.ToDecimal(temp[7]));

Answer 2

There is no .salary property because the constructor is expecting an Employee:

public Salaried_Employee_Details(Employee emp)

Which doesn't have that property. However, SalariedEmployee does have that property. If the constructor needs a SalariedEmployee then simply change it to require one:

public Salaried_Employee_Details(SalariedEmployee emp)

Then you can use that property like any other:

textBoxSalary.Text = emp.salary;

Answer 3

Looks like there's a spot missing in the format of text file.

The string you posted

Smyth|Jack|London street, London City, London|01142325413|1990|3|21|37000

has 7 separators, which lead to an array of 8 strings, the last of them (temp[7]) being the salary. Instead, in your code it is assigned to the day property of the Employee instance.

By the way, assuming there's actually another string with the postcode formatted like this

Smyth|Jack|London street, London City, London|L12 3AS|01142325413|1990|3|21|37000

you should declare emp as a SalariedEmployee class instance instead, and I recommend using the TryParse method to check whether the salary string can be converted into decimal.

public bool Load(string employeesFile)
    {
        bool isLoaded = false;
        List<string> lines = new List<string>();

        using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader("employees.txt"))
        {
            string line;
            while ((line = reader.ReadLine()) != null)
            {
                //Splitting the data using |
                string[] temp = line.Split('|');

                int year = Convert.ToInt32(temp[5]);
                int month = Convert.ToInt32(temp[6]);
                int day = Convert.ToInt32(temp[7]);

                //Populating the employees details 

                decimal _salary;
                if (Decimal.TryParse(temp[8], out _salary))
                {
                    SalariedEmployee emp = new SalariedEmployee(firstName: temp[1],
                        lastName: temp[0],
                        address: temp[2],
                        postCode: temp[3],
                        phoneNumber: temp[4],
                        dateOfBirth: new DateTime(year, month, day),
                        salary: _salary)

at this point, you need to also be sure the List parameter is changed to be of SalariedEmployee type, otherwise you'll get a compiler error in the following line

                Add(emp);
                isLoaded = true;
                }
            }
            return isLoaded;
        }

at this point, in the form you just need to change the type argument and un-check the last line of code

public Salaried_Employee_Details(SalariedEmployee emp)
{
    InitializeComponent();

    textBoxLastName.Text = emp.lastName;
    textBoxFirstName.Text = emp.firstName;
    textBoxAddress.Text = emp.address;
    textBoxPostCode.Text = emp.postCode;
    textBoxPhoneNumber.Text = emp.phoneNumber;
    dateTimeDateOfBirth.Text = emp.dateOfBirth.ToString();
    textBoxSalary.Text = emp.salary;
}

Hope this might help you.

Bye! Davide.