Grouping an Active Directory search

[BillDoor]

Hi

I'm using VB 2005 Express to create a small Directory search program four our company, to allow users to look up phone numbers etc. from Active Directory.

I've been able to search for contact details, but I would like to pull out a list of Departments and build them into a menu.

I can list the departments, but I get all of them when I just want to get 1 instance of each. If I were using a SQL DB then I would use the GROUP BY function, but I cannot find an equivalent in the DirectorySearcher object.

Can anyone suggest a way I can get a list of Departments out of Active Directory, with each Department name being listed just once?

====================
Mr Shine him diamond

 

[Ruffnekk]

Can't you just loop through the results and only add a new menuitem / comboboxitem when it doesn't already exist?

Regards, Ruffnekk
---
Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?

 

[BillDoor]

That was going to be my last resort, but there are a lot of user records to go through. I thought I'd ask here first to see if there was an easier way.

I have been able to use the AD provider to place the search results into a RecordSet. Does anyone know if I can query this recordset to give me what I need?

====================
Mr Shine him diamond

 

[Ruffnekk]

If it's an ADO RecordSet you can populate a dataset with first:

Dim myDA As OleDbDataAdapter = New OleDbDataAdapter
Dim myDS As DataSet = New DataSet

myDA.Fill(myDS, myRecordSet, "MyTable")

Then you can use an SQL statement like:

Dim myDRS As DataRow() = myDS.Tables("MyTable").Select("DISTINCT [myFieldname]","[myFieldName] ASC")

For Each myDR As DataRow In myDRS
  myCombobox.Items.Add(myDR("myFieldName"))
Next

From the top of my head, so please watch for typos/errors

Regards, Ruffnekk
---
Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?

 

[BillDoor]

I'll have a look at that, thanks very much.

====================
Mr Shine him diamond