Finding a control on a form with a text reference

  • Thread starter Thread starter lisa
  • Start date Start date
L

lisa

This is incredibly frustrating.

I have a VB6 app at work that we're upgrading to .NET. In the VB6
code, I'm able to get a reference to txtText by using
frm.Controls(txtText). In ASP.NET, we have Page.FindControl(txtText).
But in WindowsForms, there doesn't seem to be any equivalent.

Now, the Form.Controls collection only takes a numeric index. It's a
big form, and I don't want to have to iterate through the entire
control collection for each item I'm trying to reference.

I've been over and over the MSDN documentation, and I can't find
anything that I can use to do this. Has this capability really been
left out of .NET forms? Or is it just hiding under a name I wouldn't
have guessed (like replacing Repaint with Invalidate)?

Even the CallByName method requires an actual reference to the control.
Does anyone know how to get a reference to a control based on the text
of the control's name?

Thanks,
Lisa
 
I have a VB6 app at work that we're upgrading to .NET. In the VB6
code, I'm able to get a reference to txtText by using
frm.Controls(txtText). In ASP.NET, we have Page.FindControl(txtText).
But in WindowsForms, there doesn't seem to be any equivalent.
Click to expand...

..NET 2.0: 'Me.Controls("ButtonCancel")'. Note that you can only access
controls directly contained in the container.
 
Herfried said:
.NET 2.0: 'Me.Controls("ButtonCancel")'. Note that you can only access
controls directly contained in the container.
Click to expand...

So they decided to give it back. I don't suppose there's any way to do
this in .NET 1.1, is there?

Lisa
 
lisa,

I have never tried this, but I wonder if you could iterate through all the
controls on the form at form load, adding each control to a hashtable, with
the control's name as the key?

Then you could retrieve a reference to the control from the hashtable, using
the control's name as the key.

Kerry Moorman
 
Hello Kerry,

While entirely possible, I'm having a real hard time coming up with a valid
scenario for this.

-Boo
 
I have a VB6 app at work that we're upgrading to .NET. In the VB6
code, I'm able to get a reference to txtText by using
frm.Controls(txtText). In ASP.NET, we have Page.FindControl(txtText).
But in WindowsForms, there doesn't seem to be any equivalent.
Click to expand...

It's tedious, but you could set up a Hashtable to each Control, with the
Control's name as key, then use that to do the lookup.

Private m_oCtls As New HashTable

Private Sub Form_Load()

m_oCtls.Add( Me.txtText.Name, Me.txtText )
m_oCtls.Add( Me.txtText2.Name, Me.txtText2 )
' or some recursive code that does them all in one go
. . .

End Sub

then, you can access each Control out of the Hashtable by name, as in

' Watch out for other Types of Control
Dim tb As TextBox _
= DirectCast( m_oCtls.Item( "txtText" ), TextBox )

HTH,
Phill W.
 
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