I have to write a rather small project quickly, and I am trying to keep
every clean and OO. I am fairly new to .NET. I'd like your comments on my
proposed solution.

Request:
Display a list of summary information (hospitals) with some columns of
information next to each one. The columns represent how many database
records are present, and some other math is done is show statistics of parts
based on whole. No record detail is needed, just summary information about
the records.

Example:
Hospital | totals records | type A records | type B records | % of records
that are type A | % of records that are type B
Walter Reed Hospital | 100 | 10 | 90 | 10% | 90%

I then need to click on the hospital and get the department detail with the
same columns, but (obviously) just for that department.

The data that is being given to me (from an outside product - I have no
choice in the design) has 20 tables. 1 table each for the hospital and
record type (A or B). 10 hospitals, 2 record types = 20 tables. I am
creating my own tables with the hospital and department names.

I have the detailed numbers but I need to calculate the percentages.

Proposed Solution:
Write 2 methods to return the summary information and detail information.
The Summary method will return all of the records from the hospital table
joined with its data and the calculated percentages. The detail method will
take in the hospital number and return all of the records - again with all
of the appropriate columns.

As I typed this out I realized that I am not sure if I should return a
dataset from each method or an array/array list. Even though my database has
4 columns of data, my presentation layer has to display more than 4 columns.
It also has to display my calculated percentages.

Thanks,
Patrick

Patrick,

If you forget your concern about OO than have a look at this sample

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vbcon/html/vbtskcreatingmasterdetailslistwithdatagrid.asp

If use than one datagrid and do than instead of
GridOrders.SetDataBinding(ds,"Customers");
GridDetails.SetDataBinding(ds,"Customers.CustOrd")

GridOrders.DataSource = ds

Than I thought that you had already almost your solution.

I hope this helps,

Cor