Handling all textbox event in one Handler - vb.net

I do know how to handle event of textboxes in my form. But want to make this code shorter because I will 30 textboxes. It's inefficient to use this:
Private Sub TextBox1_TextChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles TextBox1.TextChanged, TextBox2.TextChanged, TextBox3.TextChanged, TextBox4.TextChanged, TextBox5.TextChanged, TextBox6.TextChanged, TextBox7.TextChanged, TextBox8.TextChanged, TextBox9.TextChanged, TextBox10.TextChanged
Dim tb As TextBox = CType(sender, TextBox)
Select Case tb.Name
Case "TextBox1"
MsgBox(tb.Text)
Case "TextBox2"
MsgBox(tb.Text)
End Select
End Sub
Is there a way to shorten the handler?

You can use Controls.OfType + AddHandler programmatically. For example:
Dim textBoxes = Me.Controls.OfType(Of TextBox)()
For Each txt In textBoxes
AddHandler txt.TextChanged, AddressOf txtTextChanged
Next
one handler for all:
Private Sub txtTextChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
Dim txt = DirectCast(sender, TextBox)
Select Case txt.Name
Case "TextBox1"
MsgBox(txt.Text)
Case "TextBox2"
MsgBox(txt.Text)
End Select
End Sub

If you have created very Textbox with the Designer, I don't think there is a better method.
But, if you have created the Textboxes dynamically, you should AddHandler in this way:
For i = 0 to 30
Dim TB as New Texbox
AddHandler TB.TextChanged, TextBox1_TextChanged
'Set every Property that you need
Me.Controls.Add(TB)
Next

Say If you are having that 30 textboxes inside a panel(PnlTextBoxes), Now you can create handler for your textboxes dynamically like this below
For each ctrl in PnlTextBoxes.controls
If TypeOf ctrl is TextBox then
AddHandler ctrl.TextChanged, AddressOf CommonClickHandler
end if
Next
Private Sub CommonHandler(ByVal sender As System.Object, _
ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
MsgBox(ctype(sender,TextBox).Text)
End Sub

The best way would be to inherit from TextBox, override its OnTextChanged method to add your custom handling code, and then use that on your form(s) instead of the built-in TextBox control.
That way, all of the event handling code is in one single place and you increase abstraction. The behavior follows and is defined within the control class itself, not the form that contains the control. And of course, it frees you from having a bunch of ugly, hard-to-maintain Handles statements, or worse, slow and even uglier For loops.
For example, add this code defining a new custom text box control to a new file in your project:
Public Class CustomTextBox : Inherits TextBox
Protected Overridable Sub OnTextChanged(e As EventArgs)
' Do whatever you want to do here...
MsgBox(Me.Text)
' Call the base class implementation for default behavior.
' (If you don't call this, the TextChanged event will never be raised!)
MyBase.OnTextChanged(e)
End Sub
End Class
Then, after you recompile, you should be able to replace your existing TextBox controls with the newly-defined CustomTextBox control that has all of your behavior built in.

Related

Labels' Click events

I have an application where I have around 50 labels. In those labels a number is visible.
When the user clicks on the label the number needs to be written to an edit box.
This works fine, the only problem is that I have added 50 functions like below, and every time it’s the same. I was wondering if there is a common function for this
Remark: The labels have different names. So if its possible that this will work for all the labels on the form.
Private Sub LI_L_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles LI_L.Click
cmbOBJID.Text = LI_L.Text
End Sub
In the form designer, you should be able to set the handler for every label to the same function. Then you can use the "sender" parameter to determine which label is raising the event.
Notice also how all the controls that the function is linked to are listed after the "Handles" keyword. This is another way you could connect the code to all the labels if you prefer this over using the Visual Studio UI properties grid.
Private Sub LI_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Label1.Click, Label2.Click, Label3.Click
cmdOBJID.Text = DirectCast(sender, Label).Text
End Sub
While it is easy to add several events to one handler in the style of
Private Sub LI_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Label1.Click, Label2.Click, Label3.Click
It will be tedious for more than just a few labels.
You can add handlers programatically if you can find a way to refer to the labels you need to add handlers to. In this example, I put all the labels in a groupbox named "GroupBoxOptions":
Option Infer On
Option Strict On
Public Class Form1
Sub TransferDataToEditBox(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
Dim lbl = DirectCast(sender, Label)
tbEditThis.Text = lbl.Text
End Sub
Sub InitLabelHandlers()
For Each lbl In GroupBoxOptions.Controls.OfType(Of Label)
AddHandler lbl.Click, AddressOf TransferDataToEditBox
Next
End Sub
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
InitLabelHandlers()
End Sub
End Class
You may have some other way of selecting the labels which use the handler.
A pretty nice and quick solution is to traverse all the label controls on a form, assigning through the AddHandler function the event to run when a user clicks a label.
In code:
For Each c As Control In Me.Controls.OfType(Of Label)
AddHandler c.Click, AddressOf myLabelClick
Next
With the prevous snippet, we loop onto all the winform controls of type Label. A loop like that is useful when we have a lot of labels for which an event must be assigned. For each of them, we associate the event Click of the control with a customized Sub named myLabelClick. That subroutine will look like the following:
Private Sub myLabelClick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
cmdObjId.Text = DirectCast(sender, Label).Text
End Sub
Here we use the sender variable (which represents the control for which the click has been done) to access its Text property, and change the cmdObjId.Text accordingly.
Just to complement the solution from BlueMonkMN:
If you are using the DevExpress Tools, you need to import DevExpress.XtraEditors and change Label to LabelControl:
DirectCast(sender, LabelControl).Text
This worked for me.

add event on controls - how can i refer to the control itself

I want to add the same event on my multiple textboxes. Let's say for example I want all my textboxes to trim the text value of itself when it has lost focus
my idea is to loop through all the textboxes and to add an event handler to all of it, but how will I refer to the textbox itself, I think it is the same as using the "this" keyword, but it is not available in vb.net - any other recommendations?
In order to get the element which triggered the event you can use the sender parameter of the event and cast it to the required type. It is not clear from the question which platform you are using, but below is the sample code for Windows Forms:
Private Sub txt1_TextChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles txt1.TextChanged
Dim currentTextbox as TextBox = CType(sender, TextBox)
' Do what you want with the textbox
End Sub
Similar principles should apply to Web forms or WPF as well.
Through all the textboxes Use handles for all textboxes
Private Sub TextBox1_LostFocus(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) _
Handles TextBox1.LostFocus, TextBox2.LostFocus
Dim txtBox As TextBox = sender
txtBox.Text = Strings.Trim(txtBox.Text)
End Sub

VB .Net Can i manage all events from inside a groupbox in an efficient way?

I have a groupbox containing a lot of Checkboxes - only Checkboxes.
Is there a simple/fast way to handle the same event coming from different controls?
I know I can write a single sub and let it handle all the Events, but it's really time-consuming to write.
Using Visual Studio 2012
If your time concern is about writing and managing a large Handles clause, you can simply loop through the GroupBox's Controls collection upon construction of your UserControl/Form and wire up each event on each CheckBox, like so:
Imports System.Linq
Public Sub New()
InitializeComponent()
For Each chkBox As CheckBox In yourGroupBoxVariable.Controls.OfType(Of CheckBox)()
AddHandler chkBox.CheckStateChanged, AddressOf YourCheckStateChangedHandlerMethod
Next
End Sub
Private Sub YourCheckStateChangedHandlerMethod(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
' Your handler code for the checkboxes
End Sub
This leverages LINQ's OfType Enumerable extension to filter down all child controls of the GroupBox to those of type CheckBox.
Another possibility is to create a custom GroupBox, i.e. deriving from GroupBox and exposing the event yourself:
Public Class CheckboxGroup
Inherits GroupBox
Public Event CheckboxChanged(source As CheckBox, e As EventArgs)
Protected Overrides Sub OnControlAdded(e As ControlEventArgs)
' this method is called everytime a checkbox is added
If TypeOf e.Control Is CheckBox Then
Dim chk As CheckBox = DirectCast(e.Control, CheckBox)
AddHandler chk.CheckedChanged, AddressOf AllCheckedChange
End If
End Sub
Private Sub AllCheckedChange(source As Object, e As EventArgs)
If TypeOf source Is CheckBox Then
Dim chk As CheckBox = DirectCast(source, CheckBox)
RaiseEvent CheckboxChanged(chk, e)
End If
End Sub
End Class
You can then attach to the event in the Form like:
Private Sub CheckboxChanged(source As CheckBox, e As EventArgs) Handles gb.CheckboxChanged
MsgBox(source.Text & " to " & source.Checked)
End Sub
Advantage: you can never miss to add an event handler to a CheckBox, even if it is created dynamically.

trigger an event from another control

I'm using vb.net and winform. I am coming across an issue which I'm pounding my head against for the past few hours.
I have a main usercontrol which I added a groupbox and inside that groupbox, added a control like this:
main usercontrol
Me.GroupBox1.Controls.Add(Me.ctlWithDropDown)
user control ctlWithDropDown
Me.Controls.Add(Me.ddList)
Private Sub ddlList_SelectionChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ddlList.SelectionChanged
'some simple logic here to check if value changed
End Sub
The main usercontrol inherits the base class which has an event to set a value to true or false like so:
Public Event SetFlag(ByVal value As Boolean)
I want to know how I can trigger/set this boolean value from the dropdownlist when the SelectionChanged event is trigger. Any help on this issue?
Wire up an event handler for the drop down list:
AddHandler Me.ctlDropDown.SelectedIndexChanged, AddressOf ddlSelectedIndexChanged
Me.GroupBox1.Controls.Add(Me.ctlDropDown)
Make sure you create ddlSelectedIndexChanged in your control and have it fire the SetFlag Event:
Protected Sub ddlSelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
RaiseEvent SetFlag(True)
End Sub
I presume the me.ctlDropDown is something that you are making programmatically? If so then this sort of thing should work for you.
Public Sub Blah()
Dim ctlDropDown As New ComboBox
AddHandler ctlDropDown.SelectedIndexChanged, AddressOf IndexChangedHandler
Me.GroupBox1.Controls.Add(ctlDropDown)
End Sub
Private Sub IndexChangedHandler()
'Do whatever you need here.
End Sub
However, if this is not created at runtime should make an event handler like:
Private Sub IndexChangedHandler() Handles Me.ctlDropdown.SelectedIndexChanged
'Do whatever you need here.
End Sub

How to create Control Arrays in VB .NET

In VB6 there is a feature called Control Arrays, where you name controls the same name and provide them an index value. This allows you to set a value by looping through the controls and setting each value. In VB .NET I can't create a control array could someone provide me with a similar solution.
Here is a sample I wrote for something else that shows how to do something similar and shows how to do the handler as well. This makes a 10x10 grid of buttons that turn red when you click them.
Dim IsCreated(99) As Boolean
Dim Buttons As New Dictionary(Of String, Button)
Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
For i As Integer = 0 To 99
Dim B As New Button
Me.Controls.Add(B)
B.Height = 30
B.Width = 40
B.Left = (i Mod 10) * 41
B.Top = (i \ 10) * 31
B.Text = Chr((i \ 10) + Asc("A")) & i Mod 10 + 1
Buttons.Add(B.Text, B)
B.Tag = i
AddHandler B.Click, AddressOf Button_Click
Next
End Sub
Private Sub Button_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
Dim B As Button = sender
IsCreated(B.Tag) = True
B.BackColor = Color.Red
End Sub
Avoid using the proposed iteration approaches, you'll get a fairly random collection of controls unless your form is very simple. Simply declare the control array in your code and initialize it in the form constructor. Like this:
Public Class Form1
Private OrderNumbers() As TextBox
Public Sub New()
InitializeComponent()
OrderNumbers = New TextBox() {TextBox1, TextBox2}
End Sub
End Class
You can now treat OrderNumbers just like you could in VB6.
Maybe this is simpler. To create a control array, I put the control array declaration in a module. For example, if I have a Form with three TextBoxes and I want the TextBoxes to be part of a control array called 'mytext', I declare my control array in a module as follows:
Module Module1
Public mytext() As TextBox = {Form1.TextBox1, Form1.TextBox2, Form1.TextBox3}
End Module
And, I use the TextBoxes from the control array as follows:
Public Class Form1
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
mytext(0).Text = "Hello"
mytext(1).Text = "Hi"
mytext(2).Text = "There"
End Sub
End Class
You can even loop through the control array, like you could in VB6:
Public Class Form1
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
For i As Integer = 0 To 2
mytext(i).Text = i + 1
Next
End Sub
End Class
The beauty of using a module is that the TextBoxes do not even need to be in the same form.
With Winforms, you could do this:
myForm.Controls _
.OfType(Of TextBox) _
.OrderBy(Function(c) c.Name) _
.Where(Function(c) c.Name.StartsWith("somePrefix")) _
.ToArray()
On your form you would name your textboxes somePrefix1, somePrefix2, etc.
Here is an old article but it could give you more information. The top method is super easy.
Your Form, or PanelControl, or anything else that can contain child controls will have a Property called Controls.
You can loop through all of the text boxes in a control by using
'Create a List of TextBoxes, like an Array but better
Dim myTextBoxControls As New List
For Each uxControl As UserControl in MyFormName.Controls
If TypeOf(uControl) is TextBox
myTextBoxControls.Add(uControl)
End IF
Next
Now you have your iterate-able collection you can work with.
You can access a TextBoxes value with the EditValue property.
After looking at what you're trying to do a little further.
You probably want to name all of your controls with a Prefix, let's say abc for now.
For Each uxControl As UserControl in MyFormName.Controls
If TypeOf(uControl) is TextBox Then
Dim tbControl As TextBox = DirectCast(uControl, TextBox)
If tbControl.Name.StartsWith("abc") Then
tbControl.EditValue = "the Value you want to initialize"
End If
End If
Next
So this is one of the features that did not make the transition to VB.NET -- exactly :-( However, you can accomplish much of what you would have done in VB6 with two different mechanisms in .NET: Looping through the controls collection and handling control events.
Looping Through the Controls Collection
In VB.NET every form and control container has a controls collection. This is a collection that you can loop through and then do an operation on the control like set the value.
Dim myTxt As TextBox
For Each ctl As Control In Me.Controls
If TypeOf ctl Is TextBox Then
myTxt = CType(ctl, TextBox)
myTxt.Text = "something"
End If
Next
In this code sample you iterate over the controls collection testing the type of the returned object. If you find a textbox, cast it to a textbox and then do something with it.
Handling Control Events
You can also handle events over multiple controls with one event handler like you would have using the control array in VB6. To do this you will use the Handles keyword.
Private Sub TextBox1_TextChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles TextBox1.TextChanged, TextBox2.TextChanged, TextBox3.TextChanged
Dim myTxt As TextBox = CType(sender, TextBox)
MessageBox.Show(myTxt.Text)
End Sub
The key here is the Handles keyword on the end of the event handler. You separate out the various controls that you want to handle and the event by using a comma. Make sure that you are handling controls that have the same event declaration. If you ever wondered what sender was for on every event well here's one of the uses for it. Cast the sender argument to the type of control that you are working with and assign it to a local variable. You will then be able to access and manipulate the control that fired the event just like you would have in VB6 if you specified and index to the array.
Using these two techniques you can replicate the functionality of control arrays in VB6. Good luck.
Private Sub Button3_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button3.Click
Dim a() As Control = GetControls("textbox")
For Each c As TextBox In a
c.Text = c.Name
Next
End Sub
Private Function GetControls(typeOfControl As String) As Control()
Dim allControls As New List(Of Control)
'this loop will get all the controls on the form
'no matter what the level of container nesting
'thanks to jmcilhinney at vbforums
Dim ctl As Control = Me.GetNextControl(Me, True)
Do Until ctl Is Nothing
allControls.Add(ctl)
ctl = Me.GetNextControl(ctl, True)
Loop
'now return the controls you want
Return allControls.OrderBy(Function(c) c.Name). _
Where( _
Function(c) (c.GetType.ToString.ToLower.Contains(typeOfControl.ToLower) AndAlso _
c.Name.Contains("Box")) _
).ToArray()
End Function