Parsing Decimals from a String

Question

I have a dropdownlist on a web form that has an item name and a price associated with it (which is not visible to the user). I am using selecteditem.Text and selectedvalue to capture the item name and the price. To combat duplicate entries for the selectedvalue I am storing entries like so

Signed Cap 10.0
Signed Glove 10.1
Signed Shirt 10.2
Bat Shavings .50
Hat Brim .50

Then parsing it out by using the below

String[] str = dropdownlist1.SelectedValue.ToString().Split('.');
String itemprice = str[0].Trim();

My syntax works great, EXCEPT for the decimal values! On Bat Shavings and Hat Brim I need to retain the decimal value! What should I alter or how should I set up my syntax to allow duplicate selected values or to keep the decimals? I understand that using str[0] is what is causing me to loose the decimals, BUT how can I work around it for the 2 (possibly more in the future) scenarios where they need to be remain in tact?

Answer 1

Its hard to tell from your posting how your getting your data, but I would load my data from the database into a data object, then bind that object to the drop down list.

Here is the Inventory Class I used to store the data from the database:

public class Inventory
{
    public int ProductID { get; set; }
    public string ProductDescription { get; set; }
    public decimal ProductPrice { get; set; }

    public Inventory(int ID, string Description, decimal Price)
    {
        this.ProductID = ID;
        this.ProductDescription = Description;
        this.ProductPrice = Price;
    }

    public string DDLValue
    {
        get
        {
            return string.Format("{0}|{1}|{2}", ProductID, ProductDescription, ProductPrice);
        }
    }

    public string DDLText
    {
        get
        {
            return string.Format("{0} [{1}]", ProductDescription, ProductPrice.ToString("C"));
        }
    }
}

Here is a sample of how to configure the page control:

<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlProducts" runat="server" DataValueField="DDLValue" DataTextField="DDLText" />

In the page code behind, load your data into the drop down:

protected void LoadProductsFromDatabase()
    {
        System.Collections.Generic.List<Inventory> My_DDL_Datasource = new System.Collections.Generic.List<Inventory>();

        // write your code to pull database values
        // populating list with sample data for stackoverflow
        // make sure to use a replace statement to remove any delimiter characters that may be in the description
        My_DDL_Datasource.Add(new Inventory(1, "Product 1".Replace("|", ""), 0.50m));
        My_DDL_Datasource.Add(new Inventory(2, "Product 2".Replace("|", ""), 1.50m));
        My_DDL_Datasource.Add(new Inventory(3, "Product 3".Replace("|", ""), 0.50m));
        My_DDL_Datasource.Add(new Inventory(4, "Product 4".Replace("|", ""), 10.50m));

        ddlProducts.DataSource = My_DDL_Datasource;
        ddlProducts.DataBind();
    }

In the page code behind, create a method to get your drop down list selected value:

protected Inventory GetSelectedProduct()
    {
        try
        {
            if (ddlProducts.Items.Count == 0)
            {
                // do nothing, fall thru will return null
            }
            else
            {
                string[] DDLValue = ddlProducts.SelectedValue.Split('|');

                int ivalue = 0;
                int.TryParse(DDLValue.GetValue(0).ToString(), out ivalue);

                decimal dvalue = 0.00m;
                decimal.TryParse(DDLValue.GetValue(2).ToString(), out dvalue);

                // only return object if the productid and product price were successfully parsed.
                // this logic assumes no products are free
                if (ivalue > 0 && dvalue > 0.00m)
                {
                    return new Inventory(ivalue, DDLValue.GetValue(1).ToString(), dvalue);
                }
            }
        }
        catch { }
        return null;
    }

In the page code behind, do something with your selected value:

protected void DoSomethingWithValue()
    {
        Inventory MyInventoryItem = GetSelectedProduct();

        if (MyInventoryItem != null)
        {
            // selected item successfully parsed
            // do something with it.

            Response.Write(
                string.Format("Your selected product:<br />{0}<br />UniqueID: {1}<br />Price: {2}",
                Server.HtmlEncode(MyInventoryItem.ProductDescription),
                MyInventoryItem.ProductID,
                MyInventoryItem.ProductPrice.ToString("C")
            ));
        }
        else
        {
            // error parsing information stored in drop down list value
        }
    }