Radiobuttons in different group boxes - vb.net

Question

Quite a silly question, but still annoying.
The thing is that i have two group boxes where the titles have radiobuttons covering the group box titles.
Something like
(x) I want pizza
*Pizza stuff*
( ) I want Hamburger
*Hamburger stuff*
Since they're now in different group boxes, they can both be selected.
Is there a way to set/force the radiobuttons to be in the same "group"? Like in HTML where you set
name="WhatToEat" value="Pizza" for the first value and then
name="WhatToEat" value="Hamburger"
Or can i set the title for the groupbox to behave like a radio button or something?
Of course i can have the radio button outside the grop boxes, but i think having the titles as radiobuttons just makes the most sense and looks nicer.

Answer 1

If you have all your RadioButtons on a form. You can use a RadioButton variable to mark what is currently checked. Every time user checks a RadioButton, if it's not the currently checked RadioButton, make the currently checked RadioButton unchecked, and set the currently checked RadioButton to that RadioButton.
Here is my code:
public Form1(){
InitializeComponents();
currentChecked = radioButton1;
}
//Suppose the initially checked radio is radioButton1
RadioButton currentChecked;
//This is the CheckedChanged event handler used for all the radiobuttons
private void radioButtonChecked(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
RadioButton r = (RadioButton)sender;
if (r != currentChecked)
{
currentChecked.Checked = false;
currentChecked = r;
}
}
My code is much simpler without using any loop. It costs the additional currentChecked but it's not much.
Hope it helps!

Answer 2

No, it have to in one group ..
But for that case you can control in checked_change event
Private Sub RadioButton2_CheckedChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles RadioButton2.CheckedChanged
RadioButton1.Checked = Not RadioButton2.Checked
End Sub
Private Sub RadioButton1_CheckedChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles RadioButton1.CheckedChanged
RadioButton2.Checked = Not RadioButton1.Checked
End Sub

Answer 3

Just move them to the Form at run-time. Use PointToScreen() and PointToClient() to keep them in the same position as you placed them at desing-time. So you'd replace "RadioButton1", "RadioButton2", and "RadioButton3" with your title RadioButtons:
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Dim RadioTitles() As RadioButton = {RadioButton1, RadioButton2, RadioButton3}
For Each rb As RadioButton In RadioTitles
Dim pt As Point = Me.PointToClient(rb.PointToScreen(New Point(0, 0)))
Me.Controls.Add(rb)
rb.Location = pt
rb.BringToFront()
Next
End Sub
*You could put a value into the Tag() property of each RadioButton that should be the "title" and then search for those instead of hard-coding them into the array. Or maybe you could name them a certain way.
EDIT: You could make the "title" RadioButtons enable/disable their associated GroupBoxes when they are checked like this:
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Dim RadioTitles() As RadioButton = {RadioButton1, RadioButton2, RadioButton3}
For Each rb As RadioButton In RadioTitles
rb.Parent.Enabled = False
rb.Tag = rb.Parent
AddHandler rb.CheckedChanged, AddressOf TitleRadioButtons_CheckedChanged
Dim pt As Point = Me.PointToClient(rb.PointToScreen(New Point(0, 0)))
Me.Controls.Add(rb)
rb.Location = pt
rb.BringToFront()
Next
End Sub
Private Sub TitleRadioButtons_CheckedChanged(sender As Object, e As System.EventArgs)
Dim rb As RadioButton = DirectCast(sender, RadioButton)
If Not IsNothing(rb.Tag) AndAlso TypeOf rb.Tag Is Control Then
Dim ctl As Control = DirectCast(rb.Tag, Control)
ctl.Enabled = rb.Checked
End If
End Sub

Answer 4

Unfortunately, that's not how radio buttons work.
As I'm sure you're aware, radio buttons get their grouping from containers. To my knowledge, if you want to be able to accomplish what you're asking, you'll probably need to code a custom solution. For instance, you could place an event handler on each radio button to fire off the same event to uncheck other boxes, e.g.
radioButton1.CheckedChanged += anyRadioButton_CheckedChanged;
radioButton2.CheckedChanged += anyRadioButton_CheckedChanged;
radioButton3.CheckedChanged += anyRadioButton_CheckedChanged;
...
private void anyRadioButton_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
foreach (var control in this.Controls)
{
if(control is GroupBox)
{
foreach (var childControl in ((GroupBox)control).Controls)
{
if (childControl is RadioButton && childControl != sender)
{
((RadioButton)childControl).Checked = false;
}
}
}
}
}

Answer 5

You can set text of the GroupBox to empty string and put RadioButton over it. The trick is to put it on form actually but move it the way it looks like part of GroupBox. But this is sufficient only if your group boxes are static and won't be moved. Otherwise it is better to use solution which #matzone proposed. But even in that case you can put all radio buttons in collection in your code and use the only event handler for all of them. Something like
private List<RadioButton> radioButtons;
public YourFormConstructor()
{
InitializeComponent();
radioButtons.Add(radio1);
radioButtons.Add(radio2);
radioButtons.Add(radio3);
foreach (var radio in radioButtons)
radio.CheckedChanged += RadioCheckedChanged;
}
private void CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var thisRadio = sender as RadioButton;
if (!thisRadio.Checked)
return;
foreach (var radio in radioButtons)
if (radio != thisRadio)
radio.Checked = false;
}