Develop Reference

Detect column reordering - ColumnDisplayIndexChanged raises multiple times

I am working on a .net 4.6.1 C# winforms project that has a datagridview where users can change the order of columns.
I would like to store the new order in a db table, but have trouble finding the right event for detecting when a user changed the order of the columns.
After searching here, I was pointed to the DataGridView.ColumnDisplayIndexChanged event in this thread. But that one does not solve my issue. (it only gives a solution for multiple events when you fill the datagrid view, but that is answered easily by adding the handler after setting the datasource)
That sort of works, but gets fired multiple times when a user changes the order of columns (it f.e. looks like when changing columns A,B,C,D to D,A,B,C the event gets fired 3 times (probably for A,B,D,C - A,D,B,C - D,A,B,C)
I am having a hard time finding out how I can detect if the event is the final one (since I don't want to store all these new orders, only the final one)
My questions are:
Is this event the 'best' one to use for my case?
If so, how can I detect the final ColumnDisplayIndexChanged event (D,A,B,C)?

When you reorder columns, ColumnDisplayIndexChanged will raise for all the columns which their display index has been changed. For example if you move colum A to the position after C, the event will raise for all those three columns.
There is a solution to catch the last one. DataGridViewColumn has an internal property called DisplayIndexHasChanged which is true if the event should be fired for the column. The private method which raise the event, looks into list of the columns and for each column if that property is true, first sets it to false, then raises the event. You can read internal implementations here.
You can check if there is no column having DisplayIndexHasChanged with true value, you can say it's the last event in the sequence:
private void dgv_ColumnDisplayIndexChanged(object sender, DataGridViewColumnEventArgs e)
{
var g = (DataGridView)sender;
var property = typeof(DataGridViewColumn).GetProperty("DisplayIndexHasChanged",
System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Instance);
if (g.Columns.Cast<DataGridViewColumn>().Any(x => (bool)property.GetValue(x)))
return;
else
MessageBox.Show("Changed");
}
Just keep in mind, you should disable capturing that event when you add columns:
private void f_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
LoadData();
}
void LoadData()
{
dgv.ColumnDisplayIndexChanged -= dgv_ColumnDisplayIndexChanged;
dgv.DataSource = null;
var dt = new DataTable();
dt.Columns.Add("A");
dt.Columns.Add("B");
dt.Columns.Add("C");
dgv.DataSource = dt;
dgv.ColumnDisplayIndexChanged += dgv_ColumnDisplayIndexChanged;
}

My suggestion would be not to do any custom logic to find out if its the last one or something along those lines. The best approach would be to save after each event but you can debounce it.
Using a debounce approach you can cancel the old event if the new event is fired right after depending on some amount of time you wish to allow inbetween calls.
Ex: write to storage only if there is no new event after lets say 1 second or 5 seconds depending on what is accepteable for your application
Say we decide to save with a debounce of 1 second
First event occurs you trigger the action which has 1 second to execute
If another event is triggered the old action is ignored and the new action now has 1 second to execute and so on for other sequential actions
public static Action Debounce(this Action func, int milliseconds = 300)
{
var last = 0;
return arg =>
{
var current = Interlocked.Increment(ref last);
Task.Delay(milliseconds).ContinueWith(task =>
{
if (current == last) func(arg);
task.Dispose();
});
};
}
Assuming the following action below for saving your data
Action a = (arg) =>
{
save my data here
};
first assign the debouncer to your action
var debouncedWrapper = a.Debounce(1000); //1 sec debounce
Then you can use it as follows
public void datagridchangeevent(object sender, Event e)
{
debouncedWrapper()
}
This will ignore sequential calls and the aciton will be executed only if nothing is called for one second

Make buttons in List send unique data to method

I made a application which will place out buttons in a grid where the user specifies how big the playfield should be.
I create the buttons in a list, specify some data like backgroundimage, size, and location. I then need to, in some way make the different buttons execute different code. I figured I could do this in one method, (if there aren't any good ways to programmatically create methods), if I could somehow make the buttons send a unique piece of information to the method to identify which button is pressed.
public void buttonplacer()
{
int nbrofbtns = Form2.puzzlesize * Form2.puzzlesize;
List<Button> btnslist = new List<Button>();
for (int i = 0; i < nbrofbtns; i++)
{
Button newButton = new Button();
btnslist.Add(newButton);
this.Controls.Add(newButton);
newButton.Name = "btn" + i.ToString();
newButton.Width = btnsidelength;
newButton.Height = btnsidelength;
newButton.Top = btnsidelength * Convert.ToInt32(Math.Floor(Convert.ToDouble(i / Form2.puzzlesize)));
newButton.Left = btnsidelength * Convert.ToInt32(Math.Floor(Convert.ToDouble(i)) - Math.Floor((Convert.ToDouble(i)) / (Form2.puzzlesize)) * (Form2.puzzlesize));
newButton.BackgroundImage = Lights_out_.Properties.Resources.LightsOutBlack;
newButton.Click += new EventHandler(Any_Button_Click);
}
}
void Any_Button_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
}
(If you want to know I'm doing a game called "Light's out")
Thanks in advance!

The Any_Button_Click method receives an object sender that is the button that got clicked. You just need to cast it to a Button:
void Any_Button_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Button b = (Button)sender;
// do stuff here
}
You can use the button's Location property to figure out where it sits on the game board, or you can assign an arbitrary object to the button with any information you choose at initialization time using the Tag property like this:
button.Tag = "someHelpfulString";
or like this:
button.Tag = new Tuple<int, int>(xpos, ypos);
(where xpos and ypos are positions in the button grid)
or like this:
button.Tag = new ButtonInfoObject(foo, bar, baz);
(Here it's up to you to define the ButtonInfoObject class.)

As an alternative to other answers, and in particular to somewhat address the part "good ways to programmatically create methods", there is part of the C# language called Lambda Expressions. To keep long story short, you could write something along these lines:
newButton.Click += (s, e) =>
{
//here you have access to all variables accessible in current scope,
//including "newButton" and "i";
//you could, for example, call some method passing "i" as an argument
//or just put that method's code inside this block
};
The only downside of this approach is that you need to take some extra care if you're planning to unregister the handler at some later point (see this question or this question for reference).
EDIT
As pointed in comments I overlooked the fact that i stays in scope for the whole for loop, so using it inside lambda is pretty much pointless (all handlers will use it's final value). To make it behave like expected one can simply define a variable inside the loop so it goes out of scope at the end of each iteration and is stored separately for each handler:
var btnNo = i;
newButton.Click += (s, e) =>
{
//use "btnNo" instead of "i"
//you can still safely use "newButton" reference
//since it's defined inside the loop
}

Use the sender object to get the button's name that was pressed:
void Any_Button_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
switch ((sender as Button).Name)
{
case "btn0":
//...
break;
case "btn1":
//...
break;
//...
}
}

How to properly send different parameters down for a standard Button Click

I know this has to have an easy answer, but I'm utterly failing to fathom the wealth of information on custom events, event handlers, and delegates. I have a custom messagebox class. I am trying to add the capability to do something based off of the state of a check box if the OK button is clicked. The buttons and the checkbox are added dynamically based upon input into a static Show method somewhat like the following:
if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(suicideCheckboxID))
{
suicideCheckBox = new CheckBox();
suicideCheckBox.AutoSize = true;
suicideCheckBox.Text = "Do not show this message again.";
suicideCheckBox.Location = new Point(xMargin, label.Bottom + yMargin);
suicideCheckBox.Checked = false;
suicideCheckBoxHeight = suicideCheckBox.Height;
form.Controls.Add(suicideCheckBox);
}
Button okButton = NewButton(DialogResult.OK, scaleFactor);
int x = (form.Width - okButton.Width) / 2;
okButton.Location = new Point(x, buttonYPosition);
form.Controls.Add(okButton);
form.AcceptButton = okButton;
form.CancelButton = okButton;
That's not the exact code, but it's fairly representative. My impulse is to use okButton.Clicked += new EventHandler(OKButton_clicked), but if I do that, the event generated only carries arguments for object sender and EventArgs e and I really need it to operate off of the state of the checkbox and an additional piece of text to indicate which messagebox is being shown so that the values can be stored in the registry.
My first attempt was to do something like okButton.Clicked += processSuicideCheckbox(suicideCheckboxID, suicideCheckBox);, but that seems to just process the contents and allow one to return an EventHandler that points to a method with the signature of object sender and EventArgs e. What am I missing here? What is the best way to pass in the arguments actually relevant to me?

You don't get to choose what is in the event handler for the Click event. Microsoft has already done that. You are stuck with the (object sender, EventArgs e) signature.
You do have a couple options:
Simply store the state in the class itself; the event handler will have access to it because it is inside the class.
Utilize a closure to do the same thing:
myButton.Click += (s, e) => ActualFunction(checkBox1.Checked);
Note that using the closure (via a lambda expression) is just hiding the details of maintaining this state (creating the class-level variables).

Addition in Button Event C#

private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
int a,sum=0;
a = 10;
sum = sum + a;
MessageBox.Show( sum + "Sum Result");
}
Every time I click on the button I get the answer 10. I want to store result. Suppose I click 5 times then there should be 50.The above code for better understanding should give you some idea of what I'm going for.
Other option if possible I get this result outside of the button event by some method. I am new in C# so feeling lot of problem.

As #tnw tried to tell you - move sum outside the function like this:
private sum = 0;
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
sum = sum + 10;
MessageBox.Show( sum + "Sum Result");
}
This should work
explanation
The problem you face is that every variable declared inside a function will get initialized every time you call this function and is discarded when you exit the function.
With the variable beeing outside you made it a field of your class and it will be kept in memory as long as the instance you are using (for example the instance of your form) will be.

It is because sum=0; gets re-initialized every time you call the function. Try setting it as a global variable inside the Class and then call it.
This way, when ever the function will be called, the value of sum won't get back to 0, but will increment from where it was left.
// somewhere above
int sum = 0;
// then the function
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
sum = sum + 10;
MessageBox.Show(sum + " = Sum Result");
}
..since you're not using a or b. I have removed them. However, if you're using them inside the function (in a code which you haven't posted) please add them back.
Each time you called the function, you created new variable called sum and if gets deleted at the end of the function. So, each time you pressed the button, sum had a value of 0 in it as initially. Adding 10 to it, would always return 10.
Global variables are declared inside the class itself. Every variable inside the function (such as this one) would be recreated each time you call the function and will have the value you're providing it with. So it is a better approach to write the variables globally, whose value is required next time.

Subscribing an a method to and eventhandler with more parameter(s)

I can't find solution similar to what I expect to happen. How can I add additional parameter to the method i want to subscribe to?
Suppose this line below is the code that subscribe to mouseover:
Panel cagePanel = new Panel();
cagePanel.MouseHover += new EventHandler(frmMain_MouseHover);
void frmMain_MouseHover(object sender, EventArgs e){
// I wanna add some 'int index' parameter after 'e' variable)
}
What I really want is just like this:
void frmMain_MouseHover(object sender, EventArgs e, int index){
strings[index] = "bla bla bla";
}

I can't find solution similar to what I expect to happen. How can I add additional parameter to the method i want to subscribe to?
You can't. How would the code raising the event (Panel.OnMouseHover or whatever) know what value to provide?
If you know at the time you subscribe the event, you can use a lambda expression to basically delegate the call, providing the extra information:
// 10 is just an example here - use whatever value you want for index
cagePanel.MouseHover += (sender, args) => frmMain_MouseHover(sender, args, 10);
EDIT: To iterate over each control in an array and subscribe an appropriate handler for each, you could use something like this:
for (int i = 0; i < array.Length; i++)
{
// See http://tinyurl.com/3b2hoft for reasons behind the copy
int index = i;
array[i].MouseHover += (s, args) => frmMain_MouseHover(s, args, index);
}
I would personally try to avoid needing this, however - can you not detect the index via the sender part, potentially using Array.IndexOf?

You can't, but if the extra data you need is related to what sent the event, you could use the sender value. For example, if you want to know the index in a list of controls of the item that raised the event, you could do something like:
int i = controlList.IndexOf(sender);