Dim MyList As New List(Of String)
        MyList.Add("Simon")
        MyList.Add("Denholm")
        MyList.Add("Denis")
        MyList.Add("Deniz")
        MyList.Add("Denley")
        MyList.Add("Dennis")
        MyList.Add("Dennison")
        MyList.Add("Denton")
        MyList.Add("Denver")
        MyList.Add("Denzel")
        MyList.Add("Denzil")
        MyList.Add("Deo")
        MyList.Add("Derain")
        MyList.Add("Derby")
        MyList.Add("Derek")
        MyList.Add("Derex")
        MyList.Add("Dermot")
        MyList.Add("Derrell")
        MyList.Add("Derren")
        MyList.Add("Derrick")
        MyList.Add("Derron")
        MyList.Add("Derry")
        MyList.Add("Derward")
        MyList.Add("Derwent")
        MyList.Add("Derwin")
        MyList.Add("Derwood")
        MyList.Add("Derwyn")
        MyList.Add("Denholm")
        MyList.Add("Denley")
        MyList.Add("Derrell")
        ' the latest 3 are dupes

The simplest way to remove the dupes from your list is to use the Distinct function.

       ' very simple
        Dim UniqueValuesOne As List(Of String) = MyList.Distinct().ToList()

        ' Check the results
        For Each Str As String In UniqueValuesOne
            Console.WriteLine(Str)
        Next

the another way is to not remove duplicates, but rather create a new List only containing unique elements from the original list.

        Dim UniqueValuesTwo As New List(Of String)
        For Each str As String In MyList
            If Not UniqueValuesTwo.Contains(str) Then
                ' add unique value
                UniqueValuesTwo.Add(str)
            End If
        Next

        ' Check the results
        For Each Str As String In UniqueValuesTwo
            Console.WriteLine(Str)
        Next

Count XML Child Nodes

This is how do you quickly count the child nodes of an XML file. Say that you have an XML data as follows:

< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

  
    
      < title>Sql Server 2008 Query Performance ...< /title>
      978-1-4302-1902-6
    
    
      < title>Pro ASP.NET MVC Framework< /title>
      978-1-4302-1007-8
    
  

To count the book items you may use counter iterating the books/book tags but this is how do you get the total number of book nodes in only one line.

Dim document As New XmlDocument
document.Load(xmlfilepath)
Dim count As Integer = document.SelectNodes("inventory/books/book").Count

Enjoy!

Write to MSAccess 2007

This is a very short example about how to write (insert a new record) to MSAccess database from VB.NET.
I believe that the code is well commented so no additional explanation is needed. Enjoy!

    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, _
                          ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        ' populate the members list at startup
        PopulateMembersList()
    End Sub

    Private Sub WriteButton_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, _
                                  ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles WriteButton.Click
        ' create a new oledb connection
        Dim connection As OleDb.OleDbConnection = NewConnection()
        ' create a new command objet
        Dim command As OleDb.OleDbCommand = connection.CreateCommand
        command.CommandText = "INSERT INTO Members(FirstName, LastName, NickName) " & _
                              "VALUES('" & Me.FirstName.Text & "', " & _
                              "'" & Me.LastName.Text & "', " & _
                              "'" & Me.NickName.Text & "')"
        connection.Open()
        command.ExecuteNonQuery()
        connection.Close()

        ' refresh the members list
        PopulateMembersList()
    End Sub

    Private Sub PopulateMembersList()
        ' create a new oledb connection
        Dim connection As OleDb.OleDbConnection = NewConnection()
        ' create a new command objet
        Dim command As OleDb.OleDbCommand = connection.CreateCommand
        command.CommandText = "SELECT FirstName, LastName, NickName FROM Members"

        connection.Open()
        Dim reader As OleDb.OleDbDataReader = command.ExecuteReader
        Dim listitem As ListViewItem
        While reader.Read
            listitem = MembersList.Items.Add(reader("FirstName").ToString)
            listitem.SubItems.Add(reader("LastName").ToString)
            listitem.SubItems.Add(reader("NickName").ToString)
        End While
        reader.Close()
        connection.Close()
    End Sub

    Private Function NewConnection() As OleDb.OleDbConnection
        Dim connectionstring As String = "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=" & _
        Application.StartupPath & "\MembersDB.accdb;Persist Security Info=False;"
        Dim connection As New OleDb.OleDbConnection(connectionstring)
        Return connection
    End Function

Source Code (Visual Studio 2008 Project) >>>

In order to write to MS Access 2003 database from VB.NET 2005 just modify the connection string:

Private Function NewConnection() As OleDb.OleDbConnection
    Dim connectionstring As String = "Provider=Microsoft.JET.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" & _
    Application.StartupPath & "\MembersDB.mdb;Persist Security Info=False;"
    Dim connection As New OleDb.OleDbConnection(connectionstring)
    Return connection
End Function

Source Code (Visual Studio 2005 Project) >>>