How do I make a basic program for displaying data?

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I'm looking to make a fairly simplistic program that has a drop down box or similar for selecting up to 12 containers then have an input box which you enter data into (such as 231.2) to search an Excel sheet(if possible) and display what the contents of the container would be at that reading.
Is this possible? If so how do I go about getting started and what software would be best?
Hopefully this makes sense, any help is appreciated.

What I have tried:

I haven't tried anything as I don't know where to start.

Posted 27-Oct-17 4:23am

Mike McT

Updated 27-Oct-17 4:34am

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OriginalGriff · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-27T04:34:00

Solution 1

To be honest, if you don't know where to start, there isn't a whole lot we can do to help.
Some of what you are asking for is pretty complex, and way beyond the scope of a little text box, but the main problem is that we have no idea of your skills or abilities!

The first thing you need to do is look at what you know: start with the basics, and look at the languages you know already - selecting one of them will save you a lot of time.
After that, look at the environments you are comfortable programming in: which of them involves a GUI? Again, selecting one you are competent in will same you huge amounts of time and effort.

So ... what software will be best? Probably Visual Studio - but even that will depend on the decisions you made above!
Think about what you know, and take it from there - development doesn't have "the best of everything" any more than cars do: a Ferrari is good at ~~losing your licence~~ going very fast, but can't carry 6 people. A people carrier will take six in comfort, but won't be good to move horses in. A horse box is good at moving horses, but won't fit in the car park at work! Get the idea?

Posted 27-Oct-17 4:34am

OriginalGriff

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Mike McT 27-Oct-17 10:47am

Thanks for your quick reply.

I've not touched programming in years so to say I'm rough is an understatement. I assumed it would be a lot easier than it appears to be.

OriginalGriff 27-Oct-17 11:13am

The problem is that GUI programs - of whatever flavour, and there are many - work hand-in-hand with a supporting framework, so it isn't just a case of "learning the language" anymore: you also need to invest a huge chunk of time in learning the framework. For example, if we take one of the frameworks that support a DropDownList, it has maybe 150 properties, probably twice that methods, and a whole bunch of events to handle what happens when the user interacts with it. And that doesn't even scratch the surface of connecting it to a data source such as a Database, collection, or Excel sheet! :laugh:

So we can't just say "do this" and you'll be set to go.
What languages were you familiar with? Did you do Windows programming? And how long ago was this?

Mike McT 27-Oct-17 11:54am

Haha! I was familiar with things such as visual basic(a very long time ago), html and dabbled in javascript many years ago. I'd pretty much be starting from scratch again however it's a good starting point as I'm looking to get back into programming anyways.

My intentions were just to make a program that myself and another colleague could use to display the bulk litres of a container(we have 12) (these are up to 47500ish litres) which uses a dipping scale 0-330 cms using .2 increments. This would save us having to fetch the hard copies we have and find them that way.

OriginalGriff 27-Oct-17 12:17pm

That's actually a good start - the modern version is a lot more comprehensive (it changed a huge amount after V6 when .NET came in) but it's pretty recognisable.

But ... I'd suggest C# rather than VB as it doesn't look like your code used to and fool you into trying to do things the old way! :laugh:

Having no idea what a "dipping scale" is but at a guess your excel stuff is a complication you don't really need. I would assume that the dipping scale gives you the level of liquid in the vessel, and from the total volume (which I would assume is at a dipping scale of zero) you work out how much is left?
If so, that'd probably not too complex to work out "on the fly" since the volume presumably gives you the x and y measurements so it's just a matter of multiplying the dipping scale by the volume per 0.2 cm for each vessel.

Mike McT 27-Oct-17 13:29pm

I'm happy with learning C# to do it.

Dipping scale is just a tube connected to the vessel with a very large ruler attached to it haha!
You're probably right that the excel is a complication I don't actually need however, the figures on the spreadsheet are needed, so really I'd be looking to copy them over onto the program. This would negate needing to have the excel spreadsheet on other devices(the program could go solo).

OriginalGriff 27-Oct-17 14:09pm

Makes sense.
Get yourself a copy of Visual Studio (the Community Edition is free for your needs, I suspect) - You don't need the latest version, depending on the age of your computer! :laugh:
https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/
https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/older-downloads/
And there are tutorials which will get you started.
Very much the basics:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/quick-starts/
But I'd suggest getting a book - Wrox, Addison Wesley, and MSPress do some good ones which will "lead you into" getting a GUI up and running.

Good luck! If you meet specific problems we are always happy to help!

Mike McT 27-Oct-17 14:14pm

Thank you very much.

OriginalGriff 27-Oct-17 14:30pm

You're welcome!