Better Way to Show and Hide Items in Project

Question

I have this code snippet below that I am looking for a way to make smaller if possible. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated, thanks!

Private Sub ShowAlternateRows(Show As Boolean)
 If Show = True Then
 splitter.Visible = True
 lblAlternateActualPercent.Visible = True
 lblAltEstimated.Visible = True
 lblStaticAltEstimated.Visible = True
 Grid.Cols.Item("Alternate Type").Visible = True
 Grid.Cols.Item("Alternate Start").Visible = True
 Grid.Cols.Item("Alternate End").Visible = True
 Grid.Cols.Item("Alternate Hours").Visible = True
 Grid.Cols.Item("Alternate Burn").Visible = True
 Grid.Cols.Item("Start Estimated").Visible = False
 Grid.Cols.Item("End Estimated").Visible = False
 Grid.Cols.Item("Start Actual").Visible = False
 Grid.Cols.Item("End Actual").Visible = False
 Grid.Cols.Item("Estimated Hours").Visible = False
 Grid.Cols.Item("Actual Hours").Visible = False
 Grid.Cols.Item("Burn Estimated").Visible = False
 Grid.Cols.Item("Object Count").Visible = False
 Grid.Cols.Item("Request Count").Visible = False
 Grid.Cols.Item("Resource Count").Visible = False
 lblStaticActual.Visible = False
 lblActual.Visible = False
 lblActualPercent.Visible = False
 lblStaticEstimated.Visible = False
 lblEstimated.Visible = False
 lblStaticFiltered.Visible = False
 lblFiltered.Visible = False
 lblFilteredPercent.Visible = False
 Else
 splitter.Visible = False
 lblAlternateActualPercent.Visible = False
 lblAltEstimated.Visible = False
 lblStaticAltEstimated.Visible = False
 lblStaticActual.Visible = True
 lblActual.Visible = True
 lblActualPercent.Visible = True
 lblStaticEstimated.Visible = True
 lblEstimated.Visible = True
 lblStaticFiltered.Visible = True
 lblFiltered.Visible = True
 lblFilteredPercent.Visible = True
 Grid.Cols.Item("Start Estimated").Visible = True
 Grid.Cols.Item("End Estimated").Visible = True
 Grid.Cols.Item("Start Actual").Visible = True
 Grid.Cols.Item("End Actual").Visible = True
 Grid.Cols.Item("Estimated Hours").Visible = True
 Grid.Cols.Item("Actual Hours").Visible = True
 Grid.Cols.Item("Burn Estimated").Visible = True
 Grid.Cols.Item("Object Count").Visible = True
 Grid.Cols.Item("Request Count").Visible = True
 Grid.Cols.Item("Resource Count").Visible = True
 Grid.Cols.Item("Alternate Type").Visible = False
 Grid.Cols.Item("Alternate Start").Visible = False
 Grid.Cols.Item("Alternate End").Visible = False
 Grid.Cols.Item("Alternate Hours").Visible = False
 Grid.Cols.Item("Alternate Burn").Visible = False
 End If
End Sub

Answer 1

Assuming OPTION STRICT OFF (since I don't know the type of Grid.Cols.Item):

Private Sub ShowAlternateRows(show As Boolean)
 Dim grpShow = 
 {
 splitter, lblAlternateActualPercent, 
 lblAltEstimated, lblStaticAltEstimated, 
 Grid.Cols.Item("Alternate Type"), Grid.Cols.Item("Alternate Start"),
 Grid.Cols.Item("Alternate End"), Grid.Cols.Item("Alternate Hours"),
 Grid.Cols.Item("Alternate Burn")
 }
 Dim grpHide = 
 {
 Grid.Cols.Item("Start Estimated"), Grid.Cols.Item("End Estimated"),
 Grid.Cols.Item("Start Actual"), Grid.Cols.Item("End Actual"),
 Grid.Cols.Item("Estimated Hours"), Grid.Cols.Item("Actual Hours"),
 Grid.Cols.Item("Burn Estimated"), Grid.Cols.Item("Object Count"),
 Grid.Cols.Item("Request Count"), Grid.Cols.Item("Resource Count"),
 lblStaticActual, lblActual,
 lblActualPercent, lblStaticEstimated,
 lblEstimated, lblStaticFiltered,
 lblFiltered, lblFilteredPercent
 }
 For Each ctrl in grpShow
 ctrl.Visible = show
 Next
 For Each ctrl in grpHide
 ctrl.Visible = Not show
 Next
End Sub

• Adam: This does cut things down 1/2 at least, ty.
• sloth: @AdamShip Yeah; also, the code duplication is removed. You could save 4 more lines by replacing the For Each loops by using lists and using the ForEach() extension method, but I would not recommend doing so because of the loss of readability.

Answer 2

First, if you can put the labels in 1 or more panels, you can just show/hide the panels. This means instead of:

splitter.Visible = Show
lblAlternateActualPercent.Visible = Show
lblAltEstimated.Visible = Show
lblStaticAltEstimated.Visible = Show
lblStaticActual.Visible = Not Show
lblActual.Visible = Not Show
lblActualPercent.Visible = Not Show
lblStaticEstimated.Visible = Not Show
lblEstimated.Visible = Not Show
lblStaticFiltered.Visible = Not Show
lblFiltered.Visible = Not Show
lblFilteredPercent.Visible = Not Show

You could do something like:

Panel1.Visible = Show
Panel2.Visible. Not Show

Also, noticed how I used Show or Not Show instead if an If/Else statement with all the code twice.

Last, Itererate through the columns, assuming that you want to do something with each column. (I am assuming Grid.Cols returns a DataGridColumnCollection. You might need to change for your specific type)

For each col as DataGridColumn in Grid.Cols
 If col.Name.tolower.StartsWith("alternate ") then
 col.visible = Show
 Else
 col.Visible = Not Show
 End If
Next