Access a form's control by name - vb.net

not sure whether the title of this post is accurate.
I'm trying to access windows form controls and their properties by "composing" their name within a loop, but I can't seem to find the related documentation. Using VB.net. Basically, say I have the following:
Dim myDt As New DataTable
Dim row As DataRow = myDt.NewRow()
row.Item("col01") = Me.label01.Text
row.Item("col02") = Me.label02.Text
'...
row.Item("colN") = Me.labelN.Text
I'd like to write a for loop instead of N separate instructions.
While it's simple enough to express the left-hand side of the assignments, I'm stumped when it comes to the right-hand side:
For i As Integer = 1 to N
row.Item(String.format("col{0:00}", i)) = ???
' ??? <- write "label" & i (zero-padded, like col) and use that string to access Me's control that has such name
Next
As an extra, I'd like to be able to pass the final ".Text" property as a string as well, for in some cases I need the value of the "Text" property, in other cases the value of the "Value" property; generally speaking, the property I'm interested in might be a function of i.
Cheers.

You could use the ControlsCollection.Find method with the searchAllChildren option set to true
For i As Integer = 1 to N
Dim ctrl = Me.Controls.Find(string.Format("label{0:00}", i), True)
if ctrl IsNot Nothing AndAlso ctrl.Length > 0 Then
row.Item(String.format("col{0:00}", i)) = ctrl(0).Text
End If
Next
An example on how to approach the problem using reflection to set a property that you identify using a string
Dim myLabel As Label = new Label()
Dim prop as PropertyInfo = myLabel.GetType().GetProperty("Text")
prop.SetValue(myLabel, "A Label.Text set with Reflection classes", Nothing)
Dim newText = prop.GetValue(myLabel)
Console.WriteLine(newText)

Related

How to get the value of a column using a dataview in vb.net

I have a list of records and for Employee R1005, I need to check if that Employee has been Enabled for login alert (i.e EnableLoginAlert = Yes), then a button will be displayed.
CompanyID EmployeeNo EnableLoginAlert
10046 R1005 Yes
20041 Ajax12 No
47021 Drek Yes
I have tried the below codes:
If dCompanyDetails.Tables(0).Rows.Count > 0 Then
Dim dataView As DataView = dCompanyDetails.Tables(0).DefaultView
dataView.RowFilter = "EmployeeNo = '" & strEmployeeNumber & "'"
Dim svalue As String = dataView.Table.Rows(0).ItemArray(0).ToString()
If svalue = "No" Then
AlertButton.Visible = False
ElseIf svalue = "Yes" Then
{
//Do something else
}
End If
End If
If you are going to use a DataView then use it. This:
Dim svalue As String = dataView.Table.Rows(0).ItemArray(0).ToString()
is simply going back to the DataTable and using it, ignoring the DataView. The DataView contains DataRowView objects so get the one you need and use it. It is similar to a DataRow and you can use it the same way in this case:
Dim enableLoginAlert = CStr(dataView(0)("EnableLoginAlert")) = "Yes"
Now you have an actual Boolean that represents the state you want.
That's not how you should do it though. Generally speaking, you would use a DataView when you want to bind data. In fact, if you bind a DataTable then the data you see in the UI actually comes from the DefaultView. That's why you can filter and sort it. In this case, there are better options.
If you want to find a row by its primary key then the Rows collection of a DataTable has a Find method, e.g.
Dim row = dCompanyDetails.Tables(0).Rows.Find(strEmployeeNumber)
Dim enableLoginAlert = CStr(row("EnableLoginAlert")) = "Yes"
If you're searching by other than the primary key, the DataTable itself has a Select method. Because multiple rows may match, it returns an array, so you need to get the row out of that, e.g.
Dim row = dCompanyDetails.Tables(0).Select($"EmployeeNo = '{strEmployeeNumber}'").First()
Dim enableLoginAlert = CStr(row("EnableLoginAlert")) = "Yes"
If you want to look up a single row it's perhaps easiest to use LINQ:
Dim row = dCompanyDetails.Tables(0).Rows.Cast(Of DataRow).AsQueryable().FirstOrDefault(Function(r) r("EmployeeNo").ToString() = strEmployeeNumber)
If row IsNot Nothing AndAlso row("EnableLoginAlert").ToString() = "Yes" Then
...
..though I'd be the first to claim that using LINQ on base DataTables is very verbose, because of the Cast/AsQueryable. I'd use strongly typed DataTables (in a dataset); if you were to convert your code to using strongly typed tables it would look like:
Dim r = someDataSet.AProperTableName.FirstOrDefault(Function(r) r.EmployeeNo = strEmployeeNumber)
If r?.EnableLoginALert = "Yes" Then
...
...using strongly typed datatables is much less messy..
nb: You need to Imports System.Linq for these to work
That LINQ is the same thing as:
For Each r as DataRow in dCompanyDetails.Tables(0)
If r("EmployeeNo").ToString() = "R1005" AndAlso r("EnableLoginAlert").ToString() = "Yes" Then
...
You also have the option of using DataTable.Select (not a LINQ thing, though LINQ has a Select too)
Dim matchingRows = dCompanyDetails.Tables(0).Select($"[EmployeeNo] = '{strEmployeeNumber}'")
If matchingrows.Count > 0 AndAlso matchingRows(0)("EnableLoginAlert").ToString() = "Yes"

Visual Basic Iterative enabling of Textbox's

Si I'm working on an assignment where I have 10 RadioButtons indicating how many contesters I have, and depending on what I pick between 1 to 10, I need that many of my corresponding TextBoxes to be enabled so I could fill it with names!
Is there a way for me to make a For loop between 1 and the number I picked from the RadioButton and say something like
For i = 0 to Size
{
TextBox&i.Enabled = True
}
Since my TextBoxs are called TextBox1 to TextBox10
I know you can add strings together using &, but how can I do that for an object name?
As of right now I literally have the dumbest way of doing it, which is a click event inside each RadioButton that manually enables the correct number of TextBoxes...
Thank you in advance!
You can iterate over all controls like this:
For Each ctr In Me.Controls
Dim indx As String = ctr.Name
If TypeOf (ctr) Is Textbox Then
' Now compare the name with TextBox&i and do smth
End If
Next
It's not possible to just concatenate a string and use it as an object variable reference like that, but you can search the form's controls by their name property (which is a string) and do it that way. Here's an example:
Private Sub EnableTextBoxes(ByVal Size As Integer)
For i As Integer = 1 To Size
Dim matches() As Control = Me.Controls.Find("Textbox" & i.ToString, True)
If matches IsNot Nothing AndAlso matches.Length = 1 Then matches(0).Enabled = True
Next
End Sub

Get RepositoryItem (As Control) From Devexpress-GridviewCell

I'm using the devexpress Gridcontrol/Gridview which has 4 columns
Name: String
Description: String
Action: RepositoryItemLookUpEdit
Info: RepositoryItemHyperLinkEdit
Right now i want to write a function which updates the Action-column but only if the Value is contained in the datasource of the RepositoryItemLookUpEdit
So i started writing the code and this is how i far i got:
For i As Integer = 0 To GridViewDD.RowCount - 1
Dim j As Integer = i
Dim rItemlookup As RepositoryItemLookUpEdit = CType(GridViewDD.GetRow(i), DataRowView).Item("Actions")
If CType(rItemlookup.DataSource, List(Of String)).Contains(curraction) Then
// Do update of the datasource here (which works)
End If
Next
GridControlDD.RefreshDataSource()
My problem lies at the line:
Dim rItemlookup As RepositoryItemLookUpEdit = CType(GridViewDD.GetRow(i), DataRowView).Item("Actions")
Question:
How can i get the RepositoryItemLookUpEdit of a cell in devexpress (or its datasource)?
Note:
The datasource of my gridview (GridViewDD) is a List And my datasource of the RepositoryItemLookUpEdit in Action is always a List(Of String)
Note 2:
The contents of my datasource may vary from row to row
You can easily get your RepositoryItem from GridColumn.ColumnEdit property.
Here is example:
Dim rItemlookup As RepositoryItemLookUpEdit = GridViewDD.Columns("Action").ColumnEdit
'...
For i As Integer = 0 To GridViewDD.RowCount - 1
Dim j As Integer = i
If CType(rItemlookup.DataSource, List(Of String)).Contains(curraction) Then
'... Do update of the datasource here (which works)
End If
Next
GridControlDD.RefreshDataSource()
I've found it. thanks to 'many' hours of browsing the devexpress-forums. Using Gridviewinfo and GridDataRowInfo you can easily access the controls 'hidden' inside the grid
In my case the code looks as following
Dim gvInfo As GridViewInfo = GridViewDD.GetViewInfo()
Dim rInfo As GridDataRowInfo = gvInfo.RowsInfo.FindRow(i)
Dim rItemlookup As RepositoryItemLookUpEdit = rInfo.Cells(GridViewDragDrop.Columns.Item("Actions")).Editor
you can now use rItemlookup to change or access its properties.
I hope this may be of some use to anyone.

Refer to forms controls using variable

I've seen many threads on this, but I'm pretty much lost.
For the example below, I have 3 ComboBoxes (cbx_example0, cbx_example1, cbx_example2) located on three TabPages (index 0, 1, 2), respectively. I'd like set the value of the variable myVariable based on the ComboBox on the selected TabPage.
However, I can't seem to figure out how to refer to the ComboBox using a variable. It seems like it should be straightforward, but I guess not. No matter what I do, I get a NullReferenceException.
Function to get TabPage Index number (returns 0 for this example)
Function getTabIndex()
Dim currentTabIndex As Int32 = frm_Main.TabControl1.SelectedIndex
Return currentTabIndex
End Function
Attempt 1 to refer to ComboBox with variable
Dim myVariable As String
Dim i As Integer = getTabIndex
myVariable = frm_Main.Controls("cbx_example" & i).Text
Attempt 2 to refer to ComboBox with variable
Dim cbx_example0 As New ComboBox
Dim i As Integer = getTabIndex()
Dim name As String = "cbx_example" & i.ToString
cbx_example = frm_Main.Controls.Item(name)
myVariable = cbx_example.Text
Your problem is that you think that your cbo is located on the form, while in reality it is on the tabpage. Instead of
cbx_example = frm_Main.Controls.Item(name)
use (for example)
cbx_example = frm_Main.TabPage1.Controls.Item(name)
Keep in mind that your combo is probably not on tab itself but on the tabpage
On another note, I see no need for getTabIndex(). And another way to get any control within hierarchy of your form is to use
form.Controls.Find(key, searchAllChildren)

im having syntax issues pulling data from 6 text boxes with identical names (other than a number at the end) in a for loop

I have 6 different text boxes with similar names:
txtBox1, txtBox2....txtBox6
I also have an array:
dim intValue (0 to 5) as Integer
Now I want to use a for loop to assign the value in each text box to a corresponding space in the array, concatenating the value of the loop counter with the string "txtBox" and retrieving the data using the .text method.
here is my code:
For count As Integer = 0 To 5
Dim strCount As String = count
Dim strTxtBox As String = "txtBox" & strCount
intValues(count) = Convert.toInt32(strTxtBox.Text)
Next
the issue is that the string name doesn't point to txtBox1, txtBox 2 etc.
Thanks in advance for the help.
If you want to access the control name, you have to use the property "Name".
You should try something like that:
For i As Integer = 0 To 5
For Each c As Control In Controls
If c.Name = "txtBox" & i Then
intValue(i) = Convert.ToInt32(c.Text)
End If
Next
Next i
The above code is just an example, but it should work for you.
Anyway you can write a better code checking the type of the control or maybe using a different loop logic, but the basic idea is that if you want to use in your code the name od the control you have to use the NAME property.
strTxtBox is a string, nothing more. You cannot refer to control names by String without special code. Rather than go down that path, I'd create an array and populate it with text boxes:
Dim txtBoxes As TextBox() = {txtBox1, txtBox2, txtBox3, txtBox4, txtBox5, txtBox6}
Dim intValues As Integer(0 To 5)
For count As Integer = 0 To 5
intValues(count) = Convert.ToInt32(txtBoxes(count).Text)
Next
The easiest way is to iterate through the contents of Controls to find the textboxes. You can either:
Use the .Tag property to label textboxes to identify them, or as the other answer points out, use the .Name property.
If you have a lot of other controls on the form, and they may not be in order, you could also check each control to see if it's a textbox. Assume they are in reverse order, as the Controls array goes from end to beginning.
Dim nums() As Integer = {10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60}
Dim ctrl As Control
For Each ctrl In Me.Controls
If TypeOf (ctrl) Is TextBox Then
ctrl.Text = nums(Val(ctrl.Name(ctrl.Name.Length - 1)) - 1)
End If
Next
You could also instantiate an array of textboxes programmatically, but you'd have to set all of the placement, etc. by hand.
As I commented on the answer below, you may need to cast the ctrl to a System.Web.UI.Control to access the .Name, using DirectCast.