checking a radio button from it's name as a string - vb.net

So let's say I have 5 radio buttons on my form.
In my code, I want to check RadioButton3.
I have "RadioButton3" stored in a string variable (RadName)
I can already loop through the controls on the form. How do I go about checking (and actually having the radio button filled in), RadioButton3 when the loop gets to it?
For Each RadioButtn As Control In Me.gbWriteXML.Controls
If (TypeOf RadioButtn Is RadioButton) Then
---code here for checking the radio button---
End If
Next
The .gbWriteXML is a groupbox. Just to avoid any confusion. I was thinking something like:
If RadioButtn.Name = RadName Then
RadName.Checked = True (or .PerformClick for that button)
End If
How can I actually get the control associated with the RadName string, via the control's name?
I need this code to be able to take a radiobutton's name as string hardcoded or entered into the program at runtime, loop until it find the radiobutton with a matching name, then actually taking that radiobutton control, and checking it so it's filled in blue.

Don't loop. Just search for it with Controls.Find() like this:
Dim RadName As String = "RadioButton3"
Dim matches() As Control = Me.Controls.Find(RadName, True)
If matches.Length > 0 AndAlso TypeOf matches(0) Is RadioButton Then
Dim rb As RadioButton = DirectCast(matches(0), RadioButton)
rb.Checked = True
End If

Related

How do I fill the first empty TextBox in a GroupBox?

I have a GroupBox with multiple TextBox controls and I can check to see if any are empty just fine but I'm trying to make my program fill the first empty textbox it finds in the GroupBox.
Code:
Dim empty = From txt In grpbill.Controls.OfType(Of TextBox)()
Where txt.Text.Length = 0
If empty.Any Then
End If
Any ideas?
You're almost there. I'm unsure on how you define first but I've gone off the TabIndex property:
Dim firstEmptyTextBox As TextBox = (From txt In GroupBox1.Controls.OfType(Of TextBox)()
Where txt.Text.Length = 0
Order By txt.TabIndex Ascending).FirstOrDefault()
If firstEmptyTextBox IsNot Nothing Then
firstEmptyTextBox.Text = "Text"
End If
You can use the .FirstOrDefault() method:
Returns the first element of a sequence, or a default value if the sequence contains no elements.
In my example I have three TextBox controls. The first one has the text Not empty whilst the other two have nothing. When I run the code, this is my output:
Here another idea which will also work in cases where all TextBox controls in GroupBox are not empty.
Private Sub SetTextJForFirstEmptyTextBoxIfExists(text As String)
Dim emptyTextBoxes As IEnumerable(Of TextBox)
= grpbill.Controls.
OfType(Of TextBox)().
Where(Function(txtbox) txtbox.Text.Length = 0)
For Each emptyTextBox In emptyTextBoxes
emptyTextBox.Text = text
Exit Sub
Next
End Sub

Access a dynamically created textbox text from another sub. And I also want to be user-configurable and access the user-configured text

Textbox.text I want to access. And I want it user-configurable before I want to access the altered text.
Dim qbox As New TextBox
qbox.Size = New Size(20, 20)
qbox.Location = New Point(90, 10)
qbox.Parent = addtocart
qbox.Name = "quarts"
qbox.Text = "ss"**
how I dynamically add it inside a series of other dynamic controls:
tile.Controls.Add(addtocart)
flpp.Controls.Add(tile)
tile.Controls.Add(plabel)
tile.Controls.Add(nlabel)
addtocart.Controls.Add(qbox)
How I tried to access it:
qb.Text = CType(Me.Controls("flpp").Controls("tile").Controls("addtocart").Controls("qbox"), TextBox).Text
I generated to textbox at runtime. Of course it's dynamic. I'm new to VB and I'm just experimenting a school project. I wanted the textbox text to be configurable and then access that configured value. I've been brain-cracking for days about this. when I run the thing, I "getObject reference not set to an instance of an object." under NullReferenceException was unhandled" something like this. I don't get it.
WinForms? If yes, and you want to find that control "by name", then use the Controls.Find() function:
Dim ctlName As String = "quarts"
Dim matches() As Control = Me.Controls.Find(ctlName, True)
If matches.Length > 0 AndAlso TypeOf matches(0) Is TextBox Then
Dim tb As TextBox = DirectCast(matches(0), TextBox)
' ... use "tb" somehow ...
Dim value As String = tb.Text
MessageBox.Show(value)
End If

Handle containers inside containers in for each control vb 2008

I have created a function to translate my forms. I can loop through every control in a form to call this function, but I have made a situation, I cannot handle.
In one of my forms, I have groupbox in a groupbox.
This source works if I only have one groupbox.
Public Function translate_form(ByVal form As Form)
Dim control As Object
Dim controlname As String
form.Text = Get_Control_Name(form.Name, "Form")
Try
For i = 0 To form.Controls.Count - 1
control = form.Controls(i)
If TypeOf (control) Is MenuStrip Then
For j = 0 To control.items.count - 1
control.items(j).text = Get_Control_Name(form.Name, "MenuItem" & j)
Next
Else
controlname = Get_Control_Name(form.Name, control.Name)
control.Text = IIf(controlname Is Nothing, control.Text, controlname)
If TypeOf (control) Is GroupBox Then
For j = 0 To control.Controls.Count - 1
controlname = Get_Control_Name(form.Name, control.Controls(j).Name)
control.Controls(j).Text = IIf(controlname Is Nothing, control.Controls(j).Text, controlname)
If TypeOf (control.Controls(j)) Is Button Then
control.Controls(j).AutoSize = True
End If
Next
End If
If TypeOf (control) Is Button And UCase(control.Text) <> "X" Then
control.AutoSize = True
End If
End If
Next
Catch ex As Exception
MsgBox(ex.Message, MsgBoxStyle.Critical)
End Try
End Function
But in some cases I want to sperate controls inside a container. I could have one more loop if the
control.Controls(j)
is a groupbox but I want to make this function to handle any kind of "container pyramid", if you know what I mean. Maybe I will have a container which has one also and that one too etc... Or is there any control I can use as a groupbox but it doesn't count as a contaier, so I can see it with:
form.Controls
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.
The reason why your code does not deliver what you want is that you are not performing a recursive search of controls. Bear in mind that Form.Controls contains only the parent controls (not the children controls eventually contained by the parents; like the situation you refer of controls contained by a GroupBox). Additionally, I see various not-too-right issues (you should writeOption Strict On on the top of your file) and that's why this answer intends to provide you with a somehow better framework to work with (you have just to fill in the blanks with your code):
Public Sub translate_form2(ByVal form As Form)
Try
For Each ctrl As Control In form.Controls
actionsCurrentControl(ctrl)
recursiveControls(ctrl)
Next
Catch ex As Exception
End Try
End Sub
'Accounting for all the child controls (if any)
Public Sub recursiveControls(parentControl As Control)
If (parentControl.HasChildren) Then
For Each ctrl As Control In parentControl.Controls
actionsCurrentControl(ctrl)
recursiveControls(ctrl)
Next
End If
End Sub
Public Sub actionsCurrentControl(curControl As Control)
If TypeOf curControl Is MenuStrip Then
Else
If TypeOf (curControl) Is GroupBox Then
End If
If TypeOf (curControl) Is Button And UCase(curControl.Text) <> "X" Then
End If
End If
End Sub
translate_form2 iterates through all the parent controls as in your code (but by relying on a set of Subs (you are wrongly using a Function without returning any value, what is wrong), making the structure more adaptable); it also calls recursiveControls (which also calls itself for each control it analyses) to take care of any child control which might be present. I am also including actionsCurrentControl which contains all the actions to perform for each control (you have to populate it with your code).

Looping through Controls in VB.NET

I am creating a chess program. And it is composed of sixty four picture boxes with alternating black and white background colours.
I have named them pba1, pba2, pbb1, pbb2, pbc1 and so on.
Now, I want to loop through only the black ones, for example, I want to loop through only, pba1, pbb2, pbc3 and so on.
How do I create a loop for this in VB.NET?
I know of the way to loop through similarly named controls, but I am not able to adapt that method for my problem. Can you tell me a solution?
EDIT: In pba1, pb stands for picture box, and a1 stands for the square. Just in case, you wonder why such a name.
EDIT: Check out this answer
Loop through the PictureBox's in your ControlCollection and test for BackColor. I used the Form's ControlCollection, if they are in some other type of container control use that.
For Each cntrl As Control In Me.Controls
If TypeOf cntrl Is PictureBox Then
If cntrl.BackColor = Color.Black Then
'Do Something
End If
End If
Next
Base on the additional information that you gave in your answer, the reason your example is not working is that the Controls Name is a String and you are comparing it to the PictureBox Control not the Name of the Control.
You can try using the Tag Property instead of the Name of the Control, it will be cleaner and easier to read. I just put a 1 in the PictureBox's Tag Property for Black and a 0 for White.
Private Sub OriginalColour()
For Each cntrl As Control In Me.Controls
Dim result As Integer
If TypeOf cntrl Is PictureBox Then
If Integer.TryParse(cntrl.Tag.ToString, result) Then
If result = 1 Then
cntrl.BackColor = Color.Gray
Else
cntrl.BackColor = Color.White
End If
End If
End If
Next
End Sub
Generating controls at design time via the Forms Designer only makes sense for layouts which benefit from the forms designer.
In your case, you just have 64 uniform boxes in 8 rows of 8. Don’t use the Forms Designer for this, create the controls at runtime, and don’t give them names like pba1, just put them into an appropriate data structure (such as an 8x8 array):
Private chessFields As PictureBox(8, 8)
' In Form_Load:
For i = 0 To 7
For j = 0 To 7
chessFields(i, j) = New PictureBox
' Set size, position … then, finally,
Controls.Add(chessFields(i, j))
Next
Next
That way, you can access the fields in an orderly fashion without having to go via the Form.Controls collection.
Put all the pictureboxes in an 8x8 tableLayoutPanel (also useful for scaling etc). Then
For Each pb As PictureBox In TableLayoutPanel1.Controls
Dim col As Integer = TableLayoutPanel1.GetCellPosition(pb).Column
Dim row As Integer = TableLayoutPanel1.GetCellPosition(pb).Row
If col Mod 2 = 0 Xor row Mod 2 = 0 Then
pb.BackColor = Color.Black
Else
pb.BackColor = Color.White
End If
Next
Of course you could also use an array of the squares if you have that available.
This will not affect the events (pba1.click etc).
This is fairly simple and it may be resource heavy, but it works. I have a form with 36 CheckBoxes. This takes advantage of the fact that when you copy a checkbox it just increases the number of the name. I ended up with 36 checkboxes named CheckBox1 thru Checkbox36. The Function returns a checkbox, which may be used to set or read any property.
Private Function GetCheckBox(ByVal Index As Integer) As CheckBox
Dim CKBox As checkbox
For Each cntrl As Control In Me.Controls
If TypeOf cntrl Is CheckBox Then
CKBox = cntrl
If CKBox.Name = "CheckBox" & Index Then
Exit For
End If
End If
Next
Return ckbox
End Function

Clearing check boxes in VB.NET

I'm doing an assignment for Uni and in my VB.NET form I have some checkboxes, I'm trying to loop through and clear them (I have a button which will clear the form)
My problem is that there seems to be no property I can use to set the state of a checkbox when not explicitly telling VB which checkbox I want to use. for example, I can go
WineCheckBox.Checked = False
That will check the box, but I wand to DRY the code up a bit and not have to repeat this for each check box I have, this is what I was trying to do:
If TypeOf element Is CheckBox Then
element.Checked = False
End If
I've tried using element.CheckState and element.Checked and both times I get "Checked (or CheckState) is not a member of System.Windows.Forms.Control"
I've looked through all the attributes that I can find for this and none of them seem of use to me...
Am I missing something? or is this just not possible to do
Thanks
EDIT:
this is the whole block of code:
'clear the controls
For Each element As Control In Me.Controls
If TypeOf element Is TextBox Then
element.Text = ""
End If
If TypeOf element Is CheckBox Then
element.Checked = False
End If
Next
What type have you declared element as? If its just a Control then this is a base type for CheckBox that doesn't have the checked property. Maybe try:
If TypeOf element Is CheckBox Then
DirectCast(element,CheckBox).checked = False
End If
How about:
For Each element As Control In Me.Controls
If TypeOf element Is TextBox Then
element.Text = ""
End If
If TypeOf element Is CheckBox Then
Dim chk As CheckBox = CType(element, CheckBox)
chk.Checked = False
End If
Next