keyboard arrow keys in c sharp?

Question

hello everyone i am still a newbie in programming so pls excuse my stupid question i am making a programm which consists of several text boxes next to eachother and under each other so i need to make the keyboard arrow keys functional so that the user could move the cursor from one another using the keyboard arrow keys to make it easier to input his data. could someone be so gentle and tell me how to do it thanks and regards.

shafeeq shafeeq · Answer

You have to check key a on your textbox keypress event private void textBox1_KeyDown(object sender KeyEventArgs e) { if (e.KeyData== Keys.Right) { textBox2.Focus(); } }

azzo trigo · Answer

now the error is gone but i am only able to move from the first txtbox to the second and after not able to move to the next or even the one before. thanks guys

Javeed M Shaikh · Answer

replace TextBox tb = (TextBox)sender; with System.Windows.Forms.TextBox tb = (TextBox)sender;

azzo trigo · Answer

hello guys i would like to thank everyone for the help but still i get errors when i try the suggestions provided. i know its me doing something wrong and not your suggestions. i have made a smaller project just to test things out and am providing it here . thanks again guys.

Ravikumar G · Answer

Hi It is better to use Jquery for this type for situation. In Jquery there is a function called Next() and Prev() with this function you can traverse to the next and previous element . Call these functions based on the arrow keys. Once go through the below links you will get an idea... http://api.jquery.com/prev/ http://api.jquery.com/next/

shafeeq shafeeq · Answer

Hi azzo please check you form designer class . you are missing that textbox change event in form code window. You can write this code in your Form1.cs class protected void 'textBox1_TextChanged(object senderKeyEventArgs e) { } Or you can delete that error line from your designer class..but you cant access the event

azzo trigo · Answer

Hi Vulpes this is the error msg i am getting. 'Spaces.Form1' does not contain a definition for 'textBox1_TextChanged' and no extension method 'textBox1_TextChanged' accepting a first argument of type 'Spaces.Form1' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

azzo trigo · Answer

thanks guys for your replies .i will give it another try as soon as i find some time and let you know.regards to all

Vulpes · Answer

Sometimes - for example if you're creating a board game - numbered textboxes are all you need. However if you want to give your textboxes completely different names then you can put them into an array first and then use something similar to my approach.

shafeeq shafeeq · Answer

You got nice replays But it will make naming conventional problem..Since you having around 60 textboxes then how could you understand while coding for another solution?

Riddhi Valecha · Answer

Hi... I have made CheckKeys() Method. It is working fine. If you are satisfied do mark the answer as Accepted Answer.

Vulpes · Answer

Sorry about the silly error. I've just tried the code myself and it seems to be working fine. Can't really think what exception you could get on tb.Focus(). If tb were null then it should have shown up in one of the earlier lines. What is the actual exception you're getting?

azzo trigo · Answer

hi vulpes thanks forvyour reply great job as always .the code you provided is giving an error exactly in the first line first Textbox tb  i changed it to Textbox tb it ran but it gave me an exception error on tb.Focus(); just before the else if statment any help ? regards

Vulpes · Answer

You can do this with not much code provided your textboxes all have similar names such as textBox1 textBox2 ... textBox3 and are all within the same container (say the form itself). The first thing to do is to use the same KeyDown handler for all 60 of them. Having added one for the first textbox just select it from the dropdown in the Properties Box for the other 59. The code for the handler will now be as follows (off top of my head so may not be quite right): private void textBox1_KeyDown(object sender KeyEventArgs e) { Textbox tb = (TextBox)sender; int number = int.Parse(tb.Name.Substring(7)); if (e.KeyData == Keys.Right) { if (number { tb = (TextBox)this.Controls[textBox + (number + 1).ToString()]; } else { tb = (TextBox)this.Controls[textBox1]; // wrap around to number 1 } tb.Focus(); } else if (e.KeyData == Keys.Left) { if (number == 1) { tb = (TextBox)this.Controls[textBox60]; // wrap around to number 60 } else { tb = (TextBox)this.Controls[textBox + (number - 1).ToString()]; } tb.Focus(); } } The code for the up and down keys will depend on how the textboxes are arranged on the form.

azzo trigo · Answer

hi thanks for your reply. tab key already works what i want actually is that all keyboard arrow keys are functional. i.e up keydown key left and right keys so that the user can move rapidly from one textbox to another in the four directions.

Riddhi Valecha · Answer

Hi... One option is - set the tabindex property of the textboxes. Eg- Say we have 5 Textbox controls ID-Textbox1TabIndex=1 ID-Textbox2TabIndex=2 ID-Textbox3TabIndex=3 ID-Textbox4TabIndex=4 ID-Textbox5TabIndex=5. Now Initially the focus is on Textbox1. When the user clicks Tab key on the keyboard the focus will be on Textbox2. Hope this helps.

azzo trigo · Answer

hi thanks for your quick reply does this mean i have to write this code for every single textbox the are? since there are around 60 textboxes? thanks