How to Create a Control Array in C#

• Download source code - 20.4 KB

Introduction

I wrote an article earlier to create an array of PictureBox controls in your form. You can find it here: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/PictureBox_Array.aspx. This article is about creating an array of Button controls, Label controls, and TextBox controls in your form.

Background

My article has a Form (frmCotrol) with the following controls:

• Panel control (pnlButtons) to hold an array of Buttons
• Panel control (pnlLabels) to hold an array of Labels
• Panel control (pnlTextBox) to hold an array of TextBoxes
• Button control (btnAddButton) to add an array of Buttons
• Button control (btnRemoveButton) to remove a Button
• Button control (btnAddLabel) to add an array of Labels
• Button control (btnRemoveLabel) to remove a Label
• Button control (btnAddText) to add an array of TextBoxes
• Button control (btnRemoveText) to remove a TextBox
• Button control (btnExit) to exit the application

Using the code

I wrote a function to create an Array of Buttons, Labels, and TextBoxes at once:

//
// 'anyControl' is type of control, 'cNumber' is number of control 
//
private void AddControls( string anyControl, int cNumber) 
{ 
    switch (anyControl) 
    { 
        case "btn": // anyControl = btn to Add Button 
        { 
            // assign number of controls 
            btnArray = new System.Windows.Forms.Button[cNumber + 1]; 
            for (int i = 0; i < cNumber + 1; i++) 
            { 
                // Initialize one variable 
                btnArray[i] = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); 
            } 
            break; 
        } 
        case "lbl": // anyControl = lbl to Add Label 
        { 
            // assign number of controls 
            lblArray = new System.Windows.Forms.Label[cNumber + 1]; 
            for (int i = 0; i < cNumber + 1; i++) 
            { 
                // Initialize one variable 
                lblArray[i] = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); 
            } 
            break; 
        } 
        case "txt": // anyControl = txt to Add TextBox 
        { 
            // assign number of controls 
            txtArray = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox[cNumber + 1]; 
            for (int i = 0; i < cNumber + 1; i++) 
            { 
                // Initialize one variable 
                txtArray[i] = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox(); 
            } 
            break; 
        } 
    } 
}

You can go to the functions in the source file to see how I create the Events and the result of these events which occurs when the control is clicked:

1. The function ClickButton() will get the text of a Button.

I put the event in the function ShowButton():

//
// the Event of click Button
//
btnArray[n].Click += new System.EventHandler(ClickButton);

2. The function ClickLabel() will copy the text from TextBox to a Label which has the same index.

I put the Event in the function ShowLabel():

//
// the Event of click Label
//
btnLabel[n].Click += new System.EventHandler(ClickLabel);

3. The function ClickTextBox() will edit it.

I put the Event in the function ShowTextBox():

//
// the Event of click TextBox
//
btn TextBox [n].Click += new System.EventHandler(ClickTextBox);

About the code

Control array creation is not difficult, but I hope the new version of Visual Studio .NET will support control arrays as in VB6.

Finally

The file ControlArray.zip contains the source files of this article. I hope this article helps you to create arrays of any control. If you have any ideas, I would like to know about them, and all feedback is appreciated.

Sorry if you find errors in my English!

Thanks to CodeProject and all of you.