setting a value to an iterated component

Question

Hi I would like to know how to make this work in C#. If you have 2 textboxes myText1 and myText2 to do the following: private void Page_Load(object sender System.EventArgs e) { for (int i=0;i<2;i++) { (myText+i).Text = this is text +i; } } I know it will not work since myText is not a string object but isn't there something in C# like the eval statement in JavaScript where i could say something like Textbox newText = eval(myText+i); newText.Text = hello; which would make myText1 equal to hello I hope I am making sense Thanx

sjones · Answer

I found this to be so useful I decided to add it to my personal library. I thought maybe some of you out there might do the same. So in the interest of being thorough here is my updated code. I added the ability to call the function with or without a Parent control. This allows you to speed things up a bit by passing a Panel or GroupBox if it is a container. I also added one that will recurse through child controls just to make it easier to find even if it is a lot less efficient. private Control GetControlByName (string name) { return GetControlByName (this name); } private Control GetControlByName (Control parentCtrl string name) { foreach (Control ctrl in parentCtrl.Controls) { if (ctrl.Name.Equals (name)) return ctrl; } return null; } private Control GetControlByName (Control parentCtrl string name bool searchChildren) { foreach (Control ctrl in parentCtrl.Controls) { if (ctrl.Name.Equals (name)) return ctrl; if (searchChildren && ctrl.HasChildren) { Control ctrlFound = GetControlByName(ctrl name true); if (null != ctrlFound) return ctrlFound; } } return null; }

sjones · Answer

I don't know of any way to use eval. That would be nice. But here is a solution for you. private Control GetControlByName (string name) { foreach (Control ctrl in this.Controls) { if (ctrl.Name.Equals (name)) return ctrl; } return null; } Then you can use whatever you need to build the control's name just as you did at design time. For the Text property this works just fine. If you wanted to set a control specific property you would probably want to cast the returned value to that specific control type. private void Page_Load(object sender System.EventArgs e) { for (int i=0;i<2;i++) { GetControlByName (myText+i).Text = this is text +i; } }

Andrzej Wegierski · Answer

Create array of TextBoxes: TextBox[] aTBox=new TextBox[]{ myText1myText2 } and use it in the loop. foreach(TextBox tb in aTBox) { tb.Text=... } another solution is to use Reflection. It's powerful but more and more complicated. See help. --- Control or component ... never mind. You can edit Your post also.