Hi, i'm making an desktop application(no client,server) in vb.net that can insert, update and remove rows from a db. I have 3 classes:

I have a form with textboxes, that represents a name and a date. A form saves it's data into a rwPatient object.

A class rwPatient representing a row where you can set the name and the date of the patient.
and a class tblPatient that represents a table that can do sorts, addrow,removerow etc.

before I do an (insert, update) I store the textboxes values into the rwPatient object using the function getFormValues() as rwPatient.
wich loops throught the form textboxes and sets the rwPatient values to the .text property of the textbox.

I have some design problems handling empty textboxes.
Should I handle empty textboxes on the form? ie
if txtName = vbnullstring then
messagebox.show("Srry the name field can't be left empty")

Or should I make all the fields nullable(of type) inside the rwPatient class and then in the form if the textbox is empty insert nothing in rwPatient, wich will return a error message event.

I have to use nullable becaus Date cannot be nothing.

I think the second is better, because errorhandling is all into one class, and mayby later on it is allowed to have a null value for date for example.

What would you suggest.

OneQuestion:
I prefer neither. I prefer to let the database do the majority of the work. I pack the database with default values and constraints and I don't allow NULL fields. If a field is NULL, then I don't write it, especially in the name field. I create a separate table just for the middle initial and if the field is used I turn the midlnamebit to on and write the middle initial and patient's primary key in the middleinitial table. Let your DB, do most of your "grunt" work. By the way, what type of DB is it?

Hope this helps.

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Disclaimer: The above comments are solely the opinion of one person and not to be construed as a directive or an incentive to commit fraudulent acts.

srry It's Ms Access I think it just returns an error when you try to insert an empty required field, and i'm fine with not allowing any null values. But I don't get to my db because I have to store the form values in the rwPatient class first anyway. wich doesn't accept "" as date input.

OneQuestion:

My Suggestion is as follows:
   1: Since rwPatient is a class, then set your default values within the class;
   2: On the date field, set the default value to "Today Date" or "Now" function value;
   3: Change the Name field to Last Name and First Name;
   4: Do ALL field validations at time of Form entry;
   5: Set Patient SSN default to: "000-00-0000".
Where / When do you set the Patient Primary Key?

Hope this helps.




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Disclaimer: The above comments are solely the opinion of one person and not to be construed as a directive or an incentive to commit fraudulent acts.