How do get unique name of control with pinvoke ?

Question

1.00/5 (1 vote)

See more:

I'm creating a application that generates reports form different .net application froms, the problem is there is multiple text boxes on the form and all the text boxes class name is the same, is there a way get the unique name for each control ?

private List<Data.Objects.ClassObject> GetChildClassesWithName(IntPtr hParent, int pI)
       {
           int ii = 1;
           int i = 0;
           int iMax = 100;

           IntPtr prevChild = IntPtr.Zero;
           IntPtr currChild = IntPtr.Zero;

           try
           {
               while (true & i < iMax)
               {
                   currChild = FindWindowEx(hParent, prevChild, null, null);
                   if (currChild == IntPtr.Zero)
                   {
                       return null;
                   }
                   else
                   {
                       ii++;

                       // Get current ClassName
                       int nRet;
                       StringBuilder ClassName = new StringBuilder(256);
                       nRet = GetClassName(currChild, ClassName, ClassName.Capacity);

                       Data.Objects.ClassObject item = new Data.Objects.ClassObject();
                       item._Cap = GetTextBoxText(currChild);
                       item.Name = ClassName.ToString();
                       item._Curr = currChild;
                       item.ParentID = pI;
                       item.CurrID = ii;

                       if (nRet != 0)
                       {
                           string[] ignore = { "" };
                           if (!ignore.Contains(ClassName.ToString()))
                           {
                               if (item._Cap != null)
                               {
                                   classlist.Add(item);
                               }
                               else if (item.Name == Data.DataManager.GetSettingValue("DesktopClassName"))
                               {
                                   item.CurrID = 1;
                                   item.ParentID = 12;
                                   item._doc = currChild;

                                   classlist.Add(item);
                               }
                           }
                           GetChildClassesWithName(currChild, ii);
                           prevChild = currChild;
                       }
                       else
                       {
                           return null;
                       }
                   }
               }

               return null;
           }
           catch (Exception ex)
           {
               string error = ex.Message;
               return null;
           }
       }

Posted 25-Nov-14 2:52am

Member 11117223

Add a Solution

Comments

Dave Kreskowiak 25-Nov-14 9:16am

Your question doesn't make a lot of sense because windows don't have "unique names" like you find in code. They have integer window handles that uniquely identify them to Windows.

[no name] 25-Nov-14 9:34am

Thanks, but is the integer window handles the same each time or is it different for different process,threat,system etc ?

BillWoodruff 25-Nov-14 9:50am

If you create these Forms, why can't you give each TextBox Control a unique name ?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 25-Nov-14 10:16am

Makes no sense. There are no such names...
—SA

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-25T04:31:00

Member 11117223 wrote:

Thanks, but is the integer window handles the same each time or is it different for different process, threat, system, etc?

Window handles are system-wide. Unlike pointers which are different in the address spaces of different process, window handle (as well as other handles, atoms, etc.) are designed specifically to be shared between all processes. They are handles, not usual pointers.

And there is no "etc.". The unit of isolation is application domain AppDomain; and all processes are in separate application domains. The application domains have their separate address spaces; pointers/handles (even to the same object shared by different processes) can have different values in different address spaces; and if some addresses, by any change, have the same numeric values, they point to different objects in different application domains or processes. You can create more then on application domain per process, but this is a different story: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.appdomain%28v=vs.110%29.aspx[^].

Now, as Dave Kreskowiak at and I tried to explain, the question makes no sense, but that's not all. If you think that you can rely on the property Name of control, think again. Those names are only important for the designer, are used to generate code, to figure out the names of the generated members. During runtime, there are insignificant. If you create controls in your own code, you don't need to use these names. Moreover, you can modify the during runtime (say, assign null to all of them), just to see that they don't play any role. Therefore, you should never rely on those names. And of course, they don't even exist in raw Windows API you use through P/Invoke.

—SA