Enable or disable all controls on a form

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If i have N amount of button on my form. How do i disable all the buttons on my form without wrting

VB

btn1.enable = false ... btnN.enable = false

thanks in advance.

Posted 28-Oct-13 12:18pm

Member 8525993

Updated 28-Oct-13 12:30pm

Kenneth Haugland

v2

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Kenneth Haugland 28-Oct-13 18:24pm

WPF or WinForm?

Member 8525993 28-Oct-13 18:28pm

sorry about that. WinForm

4 solutions

Solution 3

C#

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
 System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlCollection controls = this.Controls;

  foreach(Control ctrl in controls)
  {
     if (ctrl is Button)
     {
        ctrl.Enabled = false;
     }
  }
}

Posted 28-Oct-13 16:27pm

S. M. Ahasan Habib

Updated 28-Oct-13 16:28pm

v2

Solution 2

Put them (the N Buttons) to an array and provide a method BtnEnabled(bool Value). BtnEnabled loops then over the array and sets btnary[xIx].enable= value;

Posted 28-Oct-13 12:41pm

idle63

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OriginalGriff · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-28T12:40:00

Solution 1

There are a couple of ways, but the easiest way is probably just to use a For Each loop on the Form.Controls collection. Of you examine each control and check if it is a button, it's a simple matter to enable / disable all of them without referencing the names at all.

"Can you provide me a simple code please ? for winform not WPF.."

VB

Public Sub EnableControls(controls As Control.ControlCollection, enable As Boolean)
	For Each c As Control In controls
		c.Enabled = enable
		EnableControls(c.Controls, enable)
	Next
End Sub

Then call it from your Form class with:

VB

EnableControls(Controls, True)

Posted 28-Oct-13 12:40pm

OriginalGriff

Updated 29-Oct-13 3:33am

v2

Comments

Member 8525993 29-Oct-13 9:16am

Can you provide me a simple code please ? for winform not WPF..

OriginalGriff 29-Oct-13 9:33am

Answer updated

Member 8525993 29-Oct-13 10:58am

Thanks you so much for answering my question. This is exactly what i wanted. also how do i exclude certain control from being effect. For instance label1

Public Sub EnableControls(controls As Control.ControlCollection, enable As Boolean)
For Each c As Control In controls

If c <> label1 Then
c.Enabled = enable
EnableControls(c.Controls, enable)
End If

Next
End Sub

Member 8525993 29-Oct-13 11:27am

Below code works fine. if you have better ideas of doing it please share. thanks again for answering my question

Public Sub EnableControls(controls As Control.ControlCollection, enable As Boolean)
Dim clabel As Control = Label1

For Each c As Control In controls

If Not (c Is clabel) Then
EnableControls(c.Controls, enable)
c.Enabled = enable
End If
Next
End Sub

OriginalGriff 29-Oct-13 11:53am

Either of your methods will work fine, or you could add
If c Is Button Then
instead.

Member 8525993 29-Oct-13 14:45pm

How exactly will i write this for just the buttons? without having to list them all or declare all of them.

OriginalGriff 29-Oct-13 15:00pm

If c Is Button Then

That only lets Button controls through...

Member 8525993 29-Oct-13 15:07pm

I did that and I got this error message " button is a type and cannot be used as an expression."

OriginalGriff 29-Oct-13 15:13pm

:blush:
I forgot the TypeOf - VB is a stupid language... :laugh:
If TypeOf c Is Button Then
...
End If

Member 8525993 29-Oct-13 15:16pm

lol. Perfect!! Thanks you so much ...

OriginalGriff 29-Oct-13 15:19pm

You're welcome!

F. Xaver · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-29T04:17:00

Solution 4

Put all your Buttons in a Panel (or any other Container, like GroupeBox, etc) and just enable this one.
(if its possible in your Design)

Posted 29-Oct-13 4:17am

F. Xaver

Comments

Member 8525993 29-Oct-13 10:59am

Thanks that is a interesting way of doing it. I did not think of that. very simple too. thanks