Develop Reference

Groupbox created in code doesn't dock correctly to parent TableLayoutPanel

In my C# WinForm application I have a tableLayoutPanel with only one row and two columns. The left column contains a TreeView, the right one another tableLayoutPanel which was set to Dock: Fill in the designer. I want to create several GroupBoxes programmatically that should use the full width of this second column also when the form is resized.
In the designer of Visual Studio it looks like this:
But when the application runs, the GroupBoxes don't use the complete width and it looks like this:
I'm using two methods to create the GroupBoxes (you can ignore the int values):
private void addDashboardRow(int i, int s)
{
// Add one row to dashboardTableLayoutPanel
sensorTableLayoutPanel.RowCount++;
// Maybe this one is wrong, but SizeType.AutoSize doesn't work either
sensorTableLayoutPanel.RowStyles.Add(new RowStyle(SizeType.Absolute, 75f));
sensorTableLayoutPanel.Controls.Add(createSensorGroupbox(i, s));
}
private GroupBox createSensorGroupbox(int i, int sen)
{
GroupBox g = new GroupBox();
//g.Width = 500; // I don't want fixed sizes, height of 75px is sufficient
//g.Height = 75;
g.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
g.Text = "Sensor " + sen.ToString();
// just one label as example...
Label temp = new Label();
temp.Text = "Temperature: ";
temp.Location = new Point(5, 20);
Label tempVal = new Label();
tempVal.Text = "°C";
tempVal.Location = new Point(5, 50);
tempVal.Name = "Sensor" + sen.ToString() + "_temp";
//[... more labels]
g.Controls.Add(temp);
g.Controls.Add(tempVal);
return g;
}
My questions are:
How can I fit the GroupBox into the complete width of the parent container?
How can I delete all rows? E.g. when looking up the sensors during run time all GroupBoxes are dublicated, but everything should be created newly.
Layout of the question: how should I format terms like TableLayoutPanel correctly in this forum? It's my second question here and I haven't found out, yet.
For the second question. Currently I'm using this method that doesn't do what I'm expecting:
private void clearDashboardTable()
{
if (sensorTableLayoutPanel.Controls.Count == sensorList.Count) {
//MessageBox.Show(sensorTableLayoutPanel.Controls.Count.ToString());
foreach (Control con in sensorTableLayoutPanel.Controls)
{
sensorTableLayoutPanel.Controls.Remove(con);
con.Dispose();
}
//sensorTableLayoutPanel.Dispose();
sensorList.Clear();
}
}
I commented out what I've tried so far in the above code or added additional comments. I used this topic to try to understand the basics of dynamic groupbox creation: Add Row Dynamically in TableLayoutPanel

One way to achieve the outcome you describe is to make a custom UserControl containing a docked GroupBox that contains a docked TableLayoutPanel.
To adjust the width when the container changes, attach to the SizeChanged event of the parent.
public partial class CustomGroupBox : UserControl
{
public CustomGroupBox() => InitializeComponent();
protected override void OnHandleCreated(EventArgs e)
{
base.OnHandleCreated(e);
if((Parent != null) &&!DesignMode)
{
Parent.SizeChanged += onParentSizeChanged;
}
}
private void onParentSizeChanged(object? sender, EventArgs e)
{
if(sender is FlowLayoutPanel flowLayoutPanel)
{
Debug.WriteLine($"{flowLayoutPanel.Width}");
Width =
flowLayoutPanel.Width -
SystemInformation.VerticalScrollBarWidth;
}
}
public new string Text
{
get=>groupBox.Text;
set=>groupBox.Text = value;
}
}
Main Form
The main form is laid out similar to your image except to substitute a FlowLayoutPanel on the right side.
Now test it out with this minimal code in the method that loads the Main Form:
public partial class MainForm : Form
{
int _id = 0;
public MainForm()
{
InitializeComponent();
flowLayoutPanel.AutoScroll= true;
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
var customGroupBox = new CustomGroupBox
{
Text = $"Sensor {++_id}",
Width = flowLayoutPanel.Width - SystemInformation.VerticalScrollBarWidth,
Padding = new Padding(),
Margin = new Padding(),
};
flowLayoutPanel.Controls.Add(customGroupBox);
}
}
}
Clear
An example of clearing the sensors would be to add a button and set a handler in the same Load method:
buttonClear.Click += (sender, e) => flowLayoutPanel.Controls.Clear();

Create dynamic buttons in a grid layout - Create a magic square UI

I'm supposed to create a magic square in 2D using Windows Forms Application. It should look like this:
However, the user should be able to decide the size of the square (3x3, 5x5, 7x7, etc). I already wrote the code in a Console Application, but I don't know how to add the 2D graphics.
Somebody already asked this question (How do I put my result into a GUI?), and one of the answers was to use DataGridView, but I'm not sure if that's what I'm looking for, since I can't make it look like the picture.
Any ideas or advice?

You can use a TableLayoutPanel and add buttons to panel dynamically.
If you don't need interaction with buttons, you can add Label instead.
Create square dynamically:
public void CreateSquare(int size)
{
//Remove previously created controls and free resources
foreach (Control item in this.Controls)
{
this.Controls.Remove(item);
item.Dispose();
}
//Create TableLayoutPanel
var panel = new TableLayoutPanel();
panel.RowCount = size;
panel.ColumnCount = size;
panel.BackColor = Color.Black;
//Set the equal size for columns and rows
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)
{
var percent = 100f / (float)size;
panel.ColumnStyles.Add(new ColumnStyle(SizeType.Percent, percent));
panel.RowStyles.Add(new RowStyle(SizeType.Percent, percent));
}
//Add buttons, if you have your desired output in an array
//you can set the text of buttons from your array
for (var i = 0; i < size; i++)
{
for (var j = 0; j < size; j++)
{
var button = new Button();
button.BackColor = Color.Lime;
button.Font = new Font(button.Font.FontFamily, 20, FontStyle.Bold);
button.FlatStyle = FlatStyle.Flat;
//you can set the text of buttons from your array
//For example button.Text = array[i,j].ToString();
button.Text = string.Format("{0}", (i) * size + j + 1);
button.Name = string.Format("Button{0}", button.Text);
button.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
//If you need interaction with buttons
button.Click += b_Click;
panel.Controls.Add(button, j, i);
}
}
panel.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
this.Controls.Add(panel);
}
If you need interaction with buttons
void button_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var button = (Button)sender;
//Instead put your logic here
MessageBox.Show(string.Format("You clicked {0}", button.Text));
}
As an example, you can call
CreateSquare(3);
Screenshot:

You can create a Form and add a TableLayoutPanel with this property
tableLayoutPanel1.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
tableLayoutPanel1.BackColor = Color.Gold;
and this is the result
When you create Row and Column, to fit correctly set the percentage in this way:
After this you can add a Button or Label in each square.

How to automaticly locate buttons on panel c#

I have a few buttons to add on the form. In the code I'm setting up some button properties:
class DigitButton : Button
{
private static int digitBtnTag;
public DigitButton()
: base()
{
this.Size = new Size(30, 30);
this.Tag = digitBtnTag;
this.Text = (this.Tag).ToString();
this.Margin = new Padding(2);
this.Padding = new Padding(2);
digitBtnTag++;
}
}
In the MainForm.cs I have
for (int i = 0; i < dgtBtns.Length; i++)
{
dgtBtns[i] = new DigitButton();
dgtBtns[i].Click += new EventHandler(this.digitButtonClick);
digitPanel.Controls.Add(dgtBtns[i]);
}
So when I launch a program I see all my buttons in the one place: (0;0) on digitPanel despite property Margin. So why don't all these buttons automaticly "push" each other in the different directions? And how to make it?

Have you tried using a FlowLayout Panel ?
Also, this video might help:
Windows Forms Controls Lesson 5: How to use the FlowLayout Panel

that's not the way controls works in c#. i'm guessing you programed at java a bit because the layout in jave works that whay, but in c# just do
for (int i = 0; i < dgtBtns.Length; i++)
{
dgtBtns[i] = new DigitButton();
dgtBtns[i].Location = new Point(50, 50 * i); // Multiplying by i makes the location shift in every loop
dgtBtns[i].Click += new EventHandler(this.digitButtonClick);
digitPanel.Controls.Add(dgtBtns[i]);
}
you'll have to figure out the location parameters by trying and see

You need to define Left and Top then add the button height or width each time you loop to position your buttons correctly i.e.
int bTop=0;
int bLeft=0;
for (int i = 0; i < dgtBtns.Length; i++)
{
dgtBtns[i] = new DigitButton();
dgtBtns[i].Click += new EventHandler(this.digitButtonClick);
dgtBtns[i].Top = bTop;
bTop += dgtBtns[i].Height;
digitPanel.Controls.Add(dgtBtns[i]);
}

dynamically creating window form according to data returned from dataset (C#)

I have a dataset that returns questions and answers from the database, each answer in answer table is linked via a forgein key to the question table.
What I would like to achive is the following:
That a a single dynamic form is created on the first question with all the questions listed under it, meaning the FK_table_Answers = PK_table_Questions on the table_Answers:
(eg) This is Form for Question One:
Question One: How old are you?
Answer One (this is a radio button)
Answer Two (this is a radio button)
Answer Three (this is a radio button)
I have managed to get the above kind of working but the problem is my code keeps generating the forms (eg) 3 times becuase there are three answers, so can anyone point me in right direction how to generate the form dynamically but only ONCE - meaning each successive form is created only once as per the question and that particular questions answers under it.
Kind regards
UPDATED code:
private void LoadDataSets()
{
if (_dataSetQuestionnaire.tbl_QuestionnaireQuestion.Rows.Count == 0)
{
try
{
//Questionnaire:
DataSet1TableAdapters.tbl_QuestionnaireTableAdapter questionnaireAdapter =
new DataSet1TableAdapters.tbl_QuestionnaireTableAdapter();
questionnaireAdapter.Fill(_dataSetQuestionnaire.tbl_Questionnaire);
//Category:
DataSet1TableAdapters.tbl_QuestionnaireCategoryTableAdapter categoryAdapter =
new DataSet1TableAdapters.tbl_QuestionnaireCategoryTableAdapter();
categoryAdapter.Fill(_dataSetQuestionnaire.tbl_QuestionnaireCategory);
//QuestionnaireQuestion:
DataSet1TableAdapters.tbl_QuestionnaireQuestionTableAdapter questionnaireQuestionAdapter =
new DataSet1TableAdapters.tbl_QuestionnaireQuestionTableAdapter();
questionnaireQuestionAdapter.Fill(_dataSetQuestionnaire.tbl_QuestionnaireQuestion);
//QuestionnaieAnswer:
DataSet1TableAdapters.tbl_QuestionnaireAnswerTableAdapter questionnaireAnswerAdapter =
new DataSet1TableAdapters.tbl_QuestionnaireAnswerTableAdapter();
questionnaireAnswerAdapter.Fill(_dataSetQuestionnaire.tbl_QuestionnaireAnswer);
using (DataSet1 dSet = new DataSet1())
{
//Questionnaire:
dSet.Merge(_dataSetQuestionnaire.tbl_Questionnaire);
//Category:
dSet.Merge(_dataSetQuestionnaire.tbl_QuestionnaireCategory);
//QuestionnaireQuestion:
dSet.Merge(_dataSetQuestionnaire.tbl_QuestionnaireQuestion);
//QuestionnaieAnswer:
dSet.Merge(_dataSetQuestionnaire.tbl_QuestionnaireAnswer);
int primaryKeyQuestionnaire = Convert.ToInt32(_dataSetQuestionnaire.tbl_Questionnaire.Rows[0][0]);
foreach (DataSet1.tbl_QuestionnaireRow questionnaire
in _dataSetQuestionnaire.Tables["tbl_Questionnaire"].Select(String.Format("pk_tbl_Questionnaire = {0}", primaryKeyQuestionnaire)))
{
foreach (DataSet1.tbl_QuestionnaireCategoryRow category
in _dataSetQuestionnaire.Tables["tbl_QuestionnaireCategory"].Select(String.Format("fk_tbl_Questionnaire = {0}", questionnaire.pk_tbl_Questionnaire)))
{
foreach (DataSet1.tbl_QuestionnaireQuestionRow question
in _dataSetQuestionnaire.Tables["tbl_QuestionnaireQuestion"].Select(String.Format("fk_tbl_QuestionnaireCategory = {0}", category.pk_tbl_QuestionnaireCategory)))
{
int radiobuttonPosition = 0;
foreach (DataSet1.tbl_QuestionnaireAnswerRow answer
in _dataSetQuestionnaire.Tables["tbl_QuestionnaireAnswer"].Select(String.Format("fk_tbl_QuestionnaireQuestion = {0}", question.pk_tbl_QuestionnaireQuestion)))
{
//Gets the questins via the FK_questionnaireQuestion and fill the _dataSetRadioButtons to generate on dynamic form.
DataSet1TableAdapters.tbl_QuestionnaireAnswerTableAdapter a =
new DataSet1TableAdapters.tbl_QuestionnaireAnswerTableAdapter();
DataSet dSetRadioButtons = new DataSet();
dSetRadioButtons.Merge(a.GetDataByQuestionnaireQuestion(answer.fk_tbl_QuestionnaireQuestion));
_dataSetRadioButtons = dSetRadioButtons;
string theQuestion = question.tbl_QuestionnaireQuestion_Description.ToString();
Form form = new Form();
_form = form;
if(_form == null)
{
_form = new Form();
}
else
{
form.Height = 400;
form.Width = 550;
form.StartPosition = FormStartPosition.CenterScreen;
Label label = new Label();
label.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(5, 10);
label.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(450, 25);
label.Text = theQuestion;
Panel panel = new Panel();
panel.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(300, 200);
panel.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(15, 50);
panel.BackColor = Color.Yellow;
System.Windows.Forms.RadioButton[] radioButtons = new System.Windows.Forms.RadioButton[_dataSetRadioButtons.Tables["tbl_QuestionnaireAnswer"].Rows.Count];
for (int i = 0; i < _dataSetRadioButtons.Tables["tbl_QuestionnaireAnswer"].Rows.Count; i++)
{
radioButtons[i] = new RadioButton();
radioButtons[i].Text = _dataSetRadioButtons.Tables["tbl_QuestionnaireAnswer"].Rows[i]["tbl_QuestionnaireAnswer_Description"].ToString();
radioButtons[i].Location = new System.Drawing.Point(60, 20 + i * 20);
//panel.Controls.Add(radioButtons[i]);
radioButtons[i].Click += new EventHandler(Form1_Click);
Int64 item = Convert.ToInt64(_dataSetRadioButtons.Tables["tbl_QuestionnaireAnswer"].Rows[0].ItemArray[3].ToString());
panel.Controls.Add(radioButtons[i]);
}
Button nextButton = new Button();
nextButton.Text = "Next";
nextButton.Name = "button";
nextButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(200, 300);
nextButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(150, 25);
nextButton.Click += new EventHandler(nextButton_Click);
form.Controls.AddRange(new Control[] { panel, label, nextButton });
form.ShowDialog();
CreateBoxAndQuestion(form, panel, label);
//form.Dispose();
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
}
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("Error");
}
}
private void CreateBoxAndQuestion(Form f, Panel p, Label l)
{
for (int i = p.Controls.Count - 1; i >= 0; i--)
{
p.Controls.RemoveAt(i);
}
}

If I understand correctly, you call CreateBoxAndQuestion every time a new question is selected.
But you create (and destroy) the form each time your code enters in this method.
A first approach would be to keep the form, label, button and panel creation outside the method (perhaps in design mode) then passing these controls to the method as
EDIT: Somewhere in your code before entering the load of your next question:
frmQuestion _form = null; // Global
// Create a global instance and keep it without displaying
if(_form == null) _form = new frmQuestion(); // frmQuestion created with panel, label e button via FormDesigner
then when you need to populate _form call
CreateBoxAndQuestion(_form, _form.Panel, _form.Label, questionText);
In this example I pass the _form to CreateBoxAndQuestion, but this is not necessary because is a global. You could change CreateBoxAndQuestion to use directly the global instance.
private void CreateBoxAndQuestion(frmQuestion f, Panel p, Label l, string _label)
{
// Do not display your form here....
}
Now when entering the method clear every RadioButton controls in the panel.Controls collection
for (int i = p.Controls.Count - 1; i >= 0; i--)
{
p.Controls.RemoveAt(i);
}
the rest of the code should change only to reflect the new text assigned to the label and controls and the re-adding of the RadioButtons to the panel. No more creation and reinitialization for Form Label, Button.
label.Text = _label;
Don't forget to destroy _form at the end of your program with _form.Dispose();

How do I make a Control Array in C# 2010.NET?

I recently moved from Visual Basic 6 to C# 2010 .NET.
In Visual Basic 6 there was an option to put how many control arrays you would like to use by changing the "index" on it.
I am wondering if this is possible in C#, if so how would I go about doing it with a class like:
func fc = new func();
But with more than just one array in fc, is this possible?
And to be more clarified,
Visual Basic 6 when you load a control like a text box or user control it has in the properties window a option for "Index" and if you change that to 0, 1, etc... it'll allow you to use all of those indexes, without loading multiple controls 50 times.
I think it might have something to do with an arraylist but I'm not entirely sure.
Thanks for any help.

That code snippet isn't going to get you very far. Creating a control array is no problem, just initialize it in the form constructor. You can then expose it as a property, although that's generally a bad idea since you don't want to expose implementation details. Something like this:
public partial class Form1 : Form {
private TextBox[] textBoxes;
public Form1() {
InitializeComponent();
textBoxes = new TextBox[] { textBox1, textBox2, textBox3 };
}
public ICollection<TextBox> TextBoxes {
get { return textBoxes; }
}
}
Which then lets you write:
var form = new Form1();
form.TextBoxes[0].Text = "hello";
form.Show();
But don't, let the form manage its own text boxes.

In .NET you would create an array of controls, then you would instance a TextBox control for each element of the array, setting the properties of the control and positioning it on the form:
TextBox[] txtArray = new TextBox[500];
for (int i = 0; i < txtArray.length; i++)
{
// instance the control
txtArray[i] = new TextBox();
// set some initial properties
txtArray[i].Name = "txt" + i.ToString();
txtArray[i].Text = "";
// add to form
Form1.Controls.Add(txtArray[i]);
txtArray[i].Parent = Form1;
// set position and size
txtArray[i].Location = new Point(50, 50);
txtArray[i].Size = new Size(200, 25);
}
.
.
.
Form1.txt1.text = "Hello World!";
Unless your layout is more simplistic (i.e. rows and columns of textboxes) you may find using the designer to be easier, less time consuming and more maintainable.

Not exactly like VB6, but it is quite easy to write the code your self in c#.
If you create a control, like a Button in the designer you can copy the code from the *.Designer.cs file
It typically looks like this
private System.Windows.Forms.Button button1;
...
this.button1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(40, 294);
this.button1.Name = "button1";
this.button1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(75, 23);
this.button1.TabIndex = 14;
this.button1.Text = "Button1";
this.button1.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true;
this.button1.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.button1_Click);
...
this.Controls.Add(this.button1);
Cut that code out and paste in a method instead, returning the Button
private Button CreateButton()
{
private System.Windows.Forms.Button button1;
this.button1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(40, 294); // <-- change location for each
this.button1.Name = "button1";
this.button1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(75, 23);
this.button1.TabIndex = 14; // <-- increase tab index or remove this line
this.button1.Text = "Button1";
this.button1.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true;
this.button1.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.button1_Click);
this.Controls.Add(this.button1);
return button;
}
then call this method like this
List<Button> buttons = new List<Button>();
for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
buttons.Add(CreateButton());
}

Read this transition guide from MS: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/kxt4418a%28v=vs.80%29.aspx

Based on Trigo's template:
Here an example handling 2 dimensional textBox array
panel1 has to be created with the designer
(I had Autoscroll=true, Size=858;525)
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
TextBox[,] txtBoxArray = new TextBox[2,100];
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
for (int i = 0; i < txtBoxArray.GetLength(0); i++)
{
for (int j = 0; j < txtBoxArray.GetLength(1); j++)
{
// instance the control
txtBoxArray[i, j] = new TextBox();
// set some initial properties
txtBoxArray[i, j].Name = "txtBox_" + i.ToString() + "_" + j.ToString();
txtBoxArray[i, j].Text = txtBoxArray[i, j].Name; //"";
// add to form
this.Controls.Add(txtBoxArray[i,j]);
txtBoxArray[i, j].Parent = panel1;
// set position and size
txtBoxArray[i, j].Location = new Point(50+i*333, 50 + j * 25);
txtBoxArray[i, j].Size = new Size(200, 25);
}
}
}
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
}
//...
}