Problem in Control Array

Question

hello sir.

I want to create a form and add controls to it, after that i want to make an array for controls of same type. just like separate array for buttons, another for text boxes, etc.
and the array should be dynamic just as i increase the number of control it should also change its size. thanks in advanced

Vulpes · Answer

Well arrays in .NET are fixed in size but you can use a List for collections whose size increases dynamically to accomodate new elements. Assuming all your controls have been placed directly on the form (and not within some container such as a panel or groupbox) then here's how you can create a list of buttons or textboxes: List textboxes = new List (); List buttons = new List (); foreach(Control c in this.Controls) { if (c is TextBox) textBoxes.Add(c); else if (c is Button) buttons.Add(c); } You can index a list in the same way as you index an array. So textboxes[0] is the first textbox added to the list and textboxes[textboxes.Count - 1] is the last element of the list. Notice that lists use the Count (rather than Length) property to represent the number of elements in the list. Just use the Add() method to add dynamically created controls to the list.

theLizard · Answer

why can't you do this? Control[] ctrls = new Control[0]; for (int i = 0; i { Array.Resize(ref ctrls ctrls.Length + 1); ctrls[ctrls.Length - 1] = new TextBox(); Array.Resize(ref ctrls ctrls.Length + 1); ctrls[ctrls.Length - 1] = new ComboBox(); } use. string name = ((TextBox)ctrls[index]).Name; } this way you only have one array to deal with and assign any control to an array element string s = ((TextBox)ctrls[0]).Name; TextBox t; if (ctrls[2].GetType().ToString() == System.Windows.Forms.TextBox) { t = (TextBox)ctrls[2]; t.Text = Hello; } or ComboBox c; if (CombotBox)ctrls[1].GetType().ToString() == System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox) { c = (ComboBox)ctrls[1]; c.Text = Hello; }