Here is my situation. I created a program on VB6.0 to track student's grades in high school. In doing this, I used over 90 combo boxes, 50+ labels, along with textboxes, etc.

I wanted to be able to choose the classes, etc for each student and save the form with my choices to the hard drive so I could pull it back up later and make changes.

I did not use a database to begin with because I did not know how. Still don't. However people have been telling me that I need a DB in order to save. I am going to make this program into an EXE when done.

Can I save the form and data as is without a DB, or do I need one?

Is there a way to create a new DB to handle the current objects and code from the program or do I have to start over?

Is VisData worth using? It just confuses me to even look at.

Any and all help appreciated!

: Here is my situation. I created a program on VB6.0 to track student's grades in high school. In doing this, I used over 90 combo boxes, 50+ labels, along with textboxes, etc.
:
: I wanted to be able to choose the classes, etc for each student and save the form with my choices to the hard drive so I could pull it back up later and make changes.
:
: I did not use a database to begin with because I did not know how. Still don't. However people have been telling me that I need a DB in order to save. I am going to make this program into an EXE when done.
:
: Can I save the form and data as is without a DB, or do I need one?

Well, you don't really "need" one, strictly speaking.
It *will* come in handy, and I'd recommend you to use one, but you don't need one - in fact, you could do without, if you save all your data to simple disk files. It's just not as fast, not as comfortable, and not as flexible as having a database.

: Is there a way to create a new DB to handle the current objects and code from the program or do I have to start over?

Well, if you haven't any code to write things to the disk, there's no reason to start over - unless the project is so messed up that you can't write it.
Open, for instance, Access, create a new .mdb file, and start designing tables to contain data.

: Is VisData worth using? It just confuses me to even look at.

As far as I'm concerned, I never use it, or any "visual database" tool, unless it's some "administration program" for the database I'm using (the "Microsoft Access" application for .mdb files, the Query Analyzer for SQL Server, and so on).
I like to write the code myself, not having some kind of "wizard" handle my code its way. Hey, it's my code after all.

It sounds like you ought to have a database.

But first, it sounds like you need to rethink your design.

90 combo boxes? That sounds overwhelming.

Let me guess...one combo box for each student?

There must be a way to design this so that it will be much easier to manage.

That's where a database really comes in...you set it up so that the user interface is simpler, and your programming ends up easier when you put things in a database.

Example: What would be an easier way to handle two grades for each of 100 students? 200 variables? Or two variables and a database?

Let us know more details...I'd love to see a program with 90 combo boxes...


Melissa