Accessing a control if its name is in a string variable

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

JohnR - 05 Jul 2007 06:02 GMT

I have the name of a control in a string variable and I want to change one
of the controls properties. Right now I recursively scan all the controls
on the form until I get one whose name matches the name in my string
variable, then I know I have the correct control and can proceed to change
the property.
However all that searching seems like overkill. Does anyone know of a way
to directly access the control if it's name is in a string variable?
Something like an indirect access...
Thanks for any advice...

Reply to this Message

Petar Atanasov - 05 Jul 2007 09:13 GMT

> I have the name of a control in a string variable and I want to change one
> of the controls properties. Right now I recursively scan all the controls
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> Something like an indirect access...
> Thanks for any advice...

try Controls.Find [http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404295.aspx]
Althought the MSDN sample is about keyed collectios, in the begining of
the page is shown how to focus on control specified by it's name.

Regards,
Petar Atansov
http://a-wake.net

Reply to this Message

Jan Hyde (VB MVP) - 05 Jul 2007 09:13 GMT

"JohnR" <JohnR104@hotmail.com>'s wild thoughts were released
on Thu, 05 Jul 2007 05:02:56 GMT bearing the following
fruit:

>I have the name of a control in a string variable and I want to change one
>of the controls properties. Right now I recursively scan all the controls
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>Something like an indirect access...
>Thanks for any advice...

Me.Controls("TextEdit1").Text = "Hello"
--
Jan Hyde

https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Jan.Hyde

Reply to this Message

Cor Ligthert [MVP] - 05 Jul 2007 11:52 GMT

Jan,

Cylix is in my opinion doing it correct recursively, I assume he wants to
find the controls on a panel to.

Your me.controls shows in my idea only the controls on the top of the form.

Although I did not check it, the Find is also to find in a collection, not
to find a child in a collection.

However I am not 100% sure about the last.

Cor

> "JohnR" <JohnR104@hotmail.com>'s wild thoughts were released
> on Thu, 05 Jul 2007 05:02:56 GMT bearing the following
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>
> https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Jan.Hyde

Reply to this Message

rowe_newsgroups - 05 Jul 2007 12:27 GMT

On Jul 5, 6:52 am, "Cor Ligthert [MVP]" <notmyfirstn...@planet.nl>
wrote:

> Jan,
>
[quoted text clipped - 29 lines]
>
> >https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Jan.Hyde

> Although I did not check it, the Find is also to find in a collection, not
> to find a child in a collection.

Controls.Find has a searchAllChildren bool parameter that you can use
to specify a recursive search.

Thanks,

Seth Rowe

Reply to this Message

JohnR - 05 Jul 2007 17:37 GMT

Hi all,

Thanks for the great replies. Looks like Control.find will do what I want,
but that method was introduced in .NET 2.0 and we have not upgraded yet.
So, I'll continue doing it manually (at least it works), until we upgrade
later this year.
Thanks again...

> On Jul 5, 6:52 am, "Cor Ligthert [MVP]" <notmyfirstn...@planet.nl>
> wrote:
[quoted text clipped - 48 lines]
>
> Seth Rowe

Reply to this Message

Kerry Moorman - 05 Jul 2007 20:52 GMT

JohnR,

If you need to do this for several controls, then you could scan all the
controls on the form once, adding the control to a hashtable and using the
control's name as the key.

Once all the controls are in the hashtable, you could access them by the
hashtable's key, the name of the control.

But this won't gain you any performance benefit if you just need to access
one control by name one time in your app.

Kerry Moorman

> Hi all,
>
[quoted text clipped - 56 lines]
> >
> > Seth Rowe

Reply to this Message

JohnR - 06 Jul 2007 00:29 GMT

Hi Kerry,

Ya know, that's a great idea. That's exactly what I'll do.

Thanks, John

> JohnR,
>
[quoted text clipped - 76 lines]
>> >
>> > Seth Rowe

Reply to this Message

rowe_newsgroups - 06 Jul 2007 11:55 GMT

On Jul 5, 3:52 pm, Kerry Moorman
<KerryMoor...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> JohnR,
>
[quoted text clipped - 70 lines]
>
> > > Seth Rowe

You might also want to subscribe to the form's controladded event and
add any dynamically created controls that were created after your scan
to your hashtable.

Thanks,

Seth Rowe

Reply to this Message

Cor Ligthert [MVP] - 05 Jul 2007 18:21 GMT

Seth

I had the plan to check it when I was home, but now you did it for me.

Thanks

Cor

> On Jul 5, 6:52 am, "Cor Ligthert [MVP]" <notmyfirstn...@planet.nl>
> wrote:
[quoted text clipped - 48 lines]
>
> Seth Rowe

Reply to this Message

Accessing a control if its name is in a string variable

Free Magazines