Populating ListBox More Quickly - mysql

Question

Is there a way to make populating ListBox fast, because the UI is freezing on form load upon populating the ListBox?
This is my form load code:
Dim abc As String = itemCount()
Dim output = Account_Get(a)
For Each s In output
ListBox1.Items.Add(s)
count1 += 1
If count1 = abc Then
ListBox1.Visible = True
End If
Next
This is the query in module:
Public Function Account_Get(ByVal chk As String) As List(Of String)
Dim result = New List(Of String)()
Try
cn.Open()
sql = "select column_name as str from table where status = 'New' order by rand()"
cmd = New MySqlCommand(sql, cn)
dr = cmd.ExecuteReader
While dr.Read
result.Add(dr("str").ToString())
End While
Return result
Catch ex As Exception
MsgErr(ex.Message, "Error Encounter")
Return Nothing
Finally
cn.Close()
End Try
End Function
this is working fine. but the fact that it loads too many datas. the ui is freezing on load. hoping someone could help me with this. thanks!

Answer 1

Since you are incrementing count1 I assume it is some sort of number. However, you are then comparing it to a string in the If statement. Please use Option Strict.
Changed the Function to return an Array of String. Took the random sort form the sql statement and moved it to a little linq at the end or the function.
You could add a Stopwatch to the data retrieval and the display sections to see where your bottleneck is. BeginUpdate and EndUpdate on the listbox prevents repainting on every addition.
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Dim output = Account_Get()
ListBox2.BeginUpdate()
ListBox2.Items.AddRange(output)
ListBox2.EndUpdate()
End Sub
Private Rand As New Random
Public Function Account_Get() As String()
Dim dt As New DataTable
Dim result As String()
Using cn As New MySqlConnection("Your connection string")
Dim Sql = "select column_name as str from table where status = 'New'" 'order by rand()"
Using cmd = New MySqlCommand(Sql, cn)
Try
cn.Open()
dt.Load(cmd.ExecuteReader)
Catch ex As Exception
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "Error Encounter")
Return Nothing
End Try
End Using
End Using
result = (From dRow In dt.AsEnumerable()
Let field = dRow("str").ToString
Order By Rand.Next
Select field).ToArray
Return result
End Function

Answer 2

The query you are using contains a random order. Ordering records randomly can be a huge performance issue within MySQL as it has to go through all records in the table and then sort them randomly. The more records in the table, the bigger the performance penalty. There is also no limitation on the number of records in your query. So if there are thousands of items in your table the listbox will also be thousands of items in size, which could also take a long time.
If you really require the random ordering you could do something about it in your code. I'm now assuming here that you are: 1) using identifiers in your table, 2) you actually wish to limit the number of items in your listbox and not display all of them.
Get a grasp of the total number of records in the table by a query
Pick a random number from the range of items in your table
Fetch the nearest record
Hope this helps you to get going to find a solution