How to Get a Specific Column Value from a DataTable?

Question

I have a datatable. I need to fetch a certain column value based on the user input. For example, lets say the datatable has two columns CountryID and CountryName.

I

Answer 1

Datatables have a .Select method, which returns a rows array according to the criteria you specify. Something like this:

Dim oRows() As DataRow

oRows = dtCountries.Select("CountryName = '" & userinput & "'")

If oRows.Count = 0 Then
   ' No rows found
Else
   ' At least one row found. Could be more than one
End If

Of course, if userinput contains ' character, it would raise an exception (like if you query the database). You should escape the ' characters (I use a function to do that).