How to keep the data of a form after hiding it - vba

Question

The user enters data in Form1 for example his name and phone number, he clicks on the "next" button that opens Form2 and Hide Form1, if he clicks on the "back" button I want the program to show Form1 with the data he entered before
The code for the "Next" Button in Form1:
Private Sub NextButton_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles NextButton.Click
Dim MyForm As New Form2
MyForm.Show()
Me.Hide()
End Sub
What should I do in order to keep the data the user entered if he comes back to Form1?
The code for the "Previous" button in Form2:
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Form1.Show()
Me.Close()
End Sub

Answer 1

One approach you could use is to only the use the DEFAULT INSTANCES of your Forms. These are accessed by using only the name of the Form, WITHOUT ever using the "New" keyword.
You're doing exactly that in Form2 when you show Form1 with:
Form1.Show()
This works because Form1 is your startup object and VB.Net used the default instance to start the application.
You could do the same thing in Form1, to show Form2:
' ... code in Form1 ...
Private Sub NextButton_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles NextButton.Click
Form2.Show() ' show the default instance of Form2 (do NOT use the "new" keyword)
Me.Hide()
End Sub
Just make sure in all places you Hide() the current form instead of closing it.
You can access the properties/fields of the default instances using the same syntax to show them, using only their name. For example, here is a made up value being accessed on Form2:
Dim userName As String = Form2.txtAddress1.Text
This assumes that Form2 was previously displayed and populated by the user. You could access the Forms from anywhere in the code using this type of syntax.
If you want to implement your own "default instance" mechanism, you could use Shared members in a class:
Public Class WizardForms
Public Shared F1 As New Form1
Public Shared F2 As New Form2
Public Shared F3 As New Form3
End Class
Then you could use code like this to display one:
WizardForms.F2.Show()
This would work as long as you are only HIDING the forms. If you allow the user to close the Forms (or close them via code), then you'd need extra code to make sure they get recreated as needed.