changing multiple textboxes at once

Question

In my program i have 50 text boxes with the name TB1 to TB50

I am trying to use a for loop to change the content of them all with a few lines of code. Instead of repeating the code 50 times. However i cant get this to work. Any help would be greatly appreciated (Please see what where i got ot below)

private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    for (int i =1; i < 50; i++)
    {
        string TB = "TB" + i;

        TextBox TBN = new TextBox();

        TBN.Name = TB;
        TBN.Text = "Textbox Changed";
    }

You're creating new text boxes, not using the ones on your form/window. — Broots Waymb, Dec 21 '17 at 21:57
But how do i set the textbox name to be TB? as currently it cant convert the string to textbox? — ben edwards, Dec 21 '17 at 21:58
If you've created the textboxes in the designer, why don't you change the names of them there? — itsme86, Dec 21 '17 at 21:59
Take a step back. You do not want to be creating new text boxes in here in order to change the text of existing ones. That just does not make sense. You need to find the ones that already exist. — Broots Waymb, Dec 21 '17 at 22:00
`this.Controls[TB].Text = "Text Changed";` Assumes controls are not in a panel, etc. Use `this.Controls.ContainsKey(TB)` to make sure the control name exists. That being said, use a grid. — LarsTech, Dec 21 '17 at 22:01
You can create and manage an array of 'Controls', but its a bit intense I think http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/topic/45666-control-arrays-in-c%23/ — Grantly, Dec 21 '17 at 22:02
You could loop through the controls on the form, or panel, or whatever you have your text boxes on, check that the control is a text box, and then update its text. If you have other text boxes on the form/panel, check that the name matches your criteria like @LarsTech alluded to. — Phil N DeBlanc, Dec 21 '17 at 22:03
I've read your statement "currently it can't convert the string to textbox" several times and I can't for the life of me figure out what you're talking about. What is "it"? Which string are you talking about? Are you saying you're trying to convert a string type to a TextBox type? Why would you think that would work at any time let alone currently? — itsme86, Dec 21 '17 at 22:03
Possible duplicate of [Loop through Textboxes](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4863051/loop-through-textboxes) — Ken White, Dec 21 '17 at 22:21
You need a collection bound to an ItemsControl. Do you have any viewmodel at all? — 15ee8f99-57ff-4f92-890c-b56153, Dec 21 '17 at 23:21

user2908532 · Answer 1 · 2017-12-21T22:38:12.397

0

Try this:

private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    for (int i =1; i < 50; i++)
    {
        string TB = "TB" + i;

        // credit to sTrenat
        TextBox TBN = this.Controls[TB];

        TBN.Text = "Textbox Changed";

    }

edited Dec 21 '17 at 22:38

answered Dec 21 '17 at 22:09

user2908532

21
1
4

Why would you do `TBN.Name = TB;`? You just looked it up by name using `TB`. Seems superfluous to set a control's name to the name it already has. – itsme86 Dec 21 '17 at 22:10
1

fair point, I copied and pasted OP's code. – user2908532 Dec 21 '17 at 22:13
2

RoutedEventArgs would make this WPF, so no Controls collection. – LarsTech Dec 21 '17 at 22:15
Hey this wont work as it cant find controls as this is a wpf file :/ – ben edwards Dec 21 '17 at 22:22
1

`TextBox TBN = this.FindName(TB) as TextBox; ` – sTrenat Dec 21 '17 at 22:29
@benedwards Hey Ben, you didn't originally tag your question as WPF, so you attracted a lot of WinForm developers to your question. – LarsTech Dec 21 '17 at 22:43

Djordje · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-23T12:48:01.310

first get all textboxes of some element depending where your textboxes are, for example if they are in gird just replace rootControl with name of your grid, after that it's lemon squeezy, using this approach textbox name doesn't matter.

IEnumerable<TextBox> TextboxCollection = rootControl.Children.OfType<TextBox>();
            foreach(TextBox tb in TextboxCollection)
            {
                tb.Text = "Text";
            }

changing multiple textboxes at once

2 Answers2