What is the correct way to save data in forms

Question

What is the standard convention to save data in textboxes and other form data to be loaded the next time the program is opened?

Answer 1

Not sure of the standard convention, or if there is one, but saving to a text file would be a simple-to-implement solution.

Answer 2

I personally do not know of any convention, however you could look into the following methods:

• Using the registry: http://radio-weblogs.com/0111551/stories/2002/10/14/registryRwInC.html
• Using profile strings: http://dotnet-snippets.com/dns/c-read-and-write-ini-files-SID574.aspx

Answer 3

It depends on the kind of data that you are trying to save. If this is a relatively small amount of user specific data associated with their user preferences, then user settings are the way to go.

If this is large amount of application data (for example like an entire address book), then you are probably better off writing to an external file or database in whatever format suits your needs.

Answer 4

You should be looking at Windows Forms data binding - that is the best way to save data from and reload data into a Windows Forms application. Once you have set up your form controls for data binding, you have a choice of where to store the data, as explained here.