The best way?

rich_grundy

Hi, I'm looking for some advice, what would be the best (file based) way of storing information to be used in a list - such information as Id, Name, Age say for each person. I want to be able to show a list of the Names or Id's or Id with the Name next to it for each item (person) in the file based - mini database type thing :). I would also like to be able to Add/Edit/Delete sections from the list, so I could delete an item that is in the middle of the list. I was thinking XML but not to sure how I would go about doing this. I'm new to coding so not to sure, I would like to use C# for this :). Many Thanks, Richard

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rich_grundy22y ago
Hi, I liked the idea of the XML so started investigating. It seems do able using DataSets and such things, so thanks :), if i get stuck I know where to come ;).
spgilmore22y ago
Many would recommend an MSAccess database. I think MSAccess is reasonably unmaintainable. I often suggest InterBase or Firebird for hefty database applications if you're going to distribute it. I recommend MySQL or MSDE (or MS SQL Server) if you are not going to distribute the application. If this is not a hefty database app (and it sounds like it's not), then an XML file would be a good choice. However, if the data is going to grow substantially, just use a database to begin with. There are 3 main objects in the FCL for managing XML. XMLReader, XMLWriter, and XMLDocument. XMLDocument is what you would use for adding or deleting users. XMLReader would be better for reporting. If you build these using a datatable, I think there is an easy way to dump a dataset (which is bound to the database) to disk as XML and reload it again later. This would be a GREAT way to do what you want, but I don't know how to do that. Anyone know how?