Control Arrays

14 Nov 2006 8:12 PM

Arne Beruldsen

I'm a recent convert to VB.net from VB6...and I can't believe they don't
support control arrays. I have an app that uses a ton of Control
Arrays...mostly labels and text boxes.

I need some guidance on how to proceed...including any third party tools.

Thanks

14 Nov 2006 9:07 PM

Tim Patrick

Try converting your VB6 application to .NET using the Upgrade Wizard built
in to Visual Studio. To use the wizard, just open your VB6 .vbp file with
the "File/Open Project" command in Visual Studio for .NET. Then check the
code in those forms that use control arrays. The wizard uses some custom
classes that try to simulate access in a control-array-like fashion.

If your control arrays exist to support controls that share all logic in
common, you can now share event handlers among multiple controls. This lets
you give unique names to each control, but still use a common event handler.
If the controls in your control array have completely unrelated logic, it
is best to make them distinct controls with unique names, and dispense with
the control array altogether.

-----
Tim Patrick
Start-to-Finish Visual Basic 2005

Show quoteHide quote

> I'm a recent convert to VB.net from VB6...and I can't believe they
> don't support control arrays. I have an app that uses a ton of
> Control Arrays...mostly labels and text boxes.
>
> I need some guidance on how to proceed...including any third party
> tools.
>
> Thanks
>

15 Nov 2006 5:44 PM

Steve Long

Arne,
I use Tim's approach a lot and it works well. So, you can give your controls
unique names and in code use the AddHandler method to set the method for
whatever event it is you are trying to handle. So, you would write a
function, say TextBox_Click(sender as Object, e as EventArgs)
Then, use the AddHandler method:
AddHandler mytextbox.Click, AddressOf TextBox_Click

Then, in your TextBox_Click routine, you could cast the sender object to a
textbox object and check its name.
So:
Dim myTxt as TextBox
if Typeof sender is TextBox then
    myTxt = DirectCast(sender, TextBox)
end if

select case myTxt.Name.ToLower
    case "myname"
        ' do something
    case else
        ' do something else
end select

I wasn't looking at the docs when I wrote this so forgive if I've messed up
an parameters to functions

Show quoteHide quote

:)
Steve

"Arne Beruldsen" <ArneBeruld***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E9270B7B-460E-42A1-9C8C-921CB012001F@microsoft.com...
> I'm a recent convert to VB.net from VB6...and I can't believe they don't
> support control arrays. I have an app that uses a ton of Control
> Arrays...mostly labels and text boxes.
>
> I need some guidance on how to proceed...including any third party tools.
>
> Thanks

15 Nov 2006 6:00 PM

Tim Patrick

Using the name works fine, but you can also test the object itself using
the "Is" keyword to see if it is actually one of your controls.

Public Sub MyTextBoxHandler(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
_
      Handles TextBox1.TextChanged, TextBox2.TextChanged, TextBox3.TextChanged
   If (sender Is TextBox1) Then
      ' ----- Do text box #1 stuff.
   ElseIf (sender Is TextBox2) Then
      ' ----- Do text box #2 stuff.
   ElseIf (sender Is TextBox3) Then
      ' ----- Do text box #3 stuff.
   End If

   ' ----- Then add common code here.

End Sub

Even though, I think it is generally best to handle each control separately,
and call common routines where there are overlaps.

-----
Tim Patrick
Start-to-Finish Visual Basic 2005

Show quoteHide quote

> Arne,
> I use Tim's approach a lot and it works well. So, you can give your
> controls
> unique names and in code use the AddHandler method to set the method
> for
> whatever event it is you are trying to handle. So, you would write a
> function, say TextBox_Click(sender as Object, e as EventArgs)
> Then, use the AddHandler method:
> AddHandler mytextbox.Click, AddressOf TextBox_Click
> Then, in your TextBox_Click routine, you could cast the sender object
> to a
> textbox object and check its name.
> So:
> Dim myTxt as TextBox
> if Typeof sender is TextBox then
> myTxt = DirectCast(sender, TextBox)
> end if
> select case myTxt.Name.ToLower
> case "myname"
> ' do something
> case else
> ' do something else
> end select
> I wasn't looking at the docs when I wrote this so forgive if I've
> messed up an parameters to functions
>
> :)
> Steve
> "Arne Beruldsen" <ArneBeruld***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
> message news:E9270B7B-460E-42A1-9C8C-921CB012001F@microsoft.com...
>
>> I'm a recent convert to VB.net from VB6...and I can't believe they
>> don't support control arrays. I have an app that uses a ton of
>> Control Arrays...mostly labels and text boxes.
>>
>> I need some guidance on how to proceed...including any third party
>> tools.
>>
>> Thanks
>>

15 Nov 2006 6:31 PM

Steve Long

Hmm, cool. I didn't even think about chaining the Handles keyword...

Show quoteHide quote

"Tim Patrick" <inva***@invalid.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:e3b469761f078c8d6b40a04b936@newsgroups.comcast.net...
> Using the name works fine, but you can also test the object itself using
> the "Is" keyword to see if it is actually one of your controls.
>
> Public Sub MyTextBoxHandler(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As
> System.EventArgs) _
>      Handles TextBox1.TextChanged, TextBox2.TextChanged,
> TextBox3.TextChanged
>   If (sender Is TextBox1) Then
>      ' ----- Do text box #1 stuff.
>   ElseIf (sender Is TextBox2) Then
>      ' ----- Do text box #2 stuff.
>   ElseIf (sender Is TextBox3) Then
>      ' ----- Do text box #3 stuff.
>   End If
>
>   ' ----- Then add common code here.
>
> End Sub
>
> Even though, I think it is generally best to handle each control
> separately, and call common routines where there are overlaps.
>
> -----
> Tim Patrick
> Start-to-Finish Visual Basic 2005
>
>> Arne,
>> I use Tim's approach a lot and it works well. So, you can give your
>> controls
>> unique names and in code use the AddHandler method to set the method
>> for
>> whatever event it is you are trying to handle. So, you would write a
>> function, say TextBox_Click(sender as Object, e as EventArgs)
>> Then, use the AddHandler method:
>> AddHandler mytextbox.Click, AddressOf TextBox_Click
>> Then, in your TextBox_Click routine, you could cast the sender object
>> to a
>> textbox object and check its name.
>> So:
>> Dim myTxt as TextBox
>> if Typeof sender is TextBox then
>> myTxt = DirectCast(sender, TextBox)
>> end if
>> select case myTxt.Name.ToLower
>> case "myname"
>> ' do something
>> case else
>> ' do something else
>> end select
>> I wasn't looking at the docs when I wrote this so forgive if I've
>> messed up an parameters to functions
>>
>> :)
>> Steve
>> "Arne Beruldsen" <ArneBeruld***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
>> message news:E9270B7B-460E-42A1-9C8C-921CB012001F@microsoft.com...
>>
>>> I'm a recent convert to VB.net from VB6...and I can't believe they
>>> don't support control arrays. I have an app that uses a ton of
>>> Control Arrays...mostly labels and text boxes.
>>>
>>> I need some guidance on how to proceed...including any third party
>>> tools.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>
>