We Keep Coding

How to control the space between two labels during run time

Im using Visual Studio 2015 Community C#.
I have two labels on a Windows form suppose Label1 and Label2.
These labels will get filled up with user input namely first name and last name.
How to put even space between them so that during runtime the first name doesn't over lap the last name.
AbrahLincoln Abraham Lincoln
(Label1^)(^Label2) (^Label1) (^Label2)
For example: how to make this ^ INTO that >>>>>>>>>>>>^^
Because if I put space in the Form Design before runtime then for other names It will come like this: John(unnecessary space)Doe
Hope you have understood my problem.
Thanks for your time. :D

Controls are located in a form based on coordinates. Luckily for you these controls have properties that tell you the coordinate for the top, left, right, bottom of a control. So you could dynamically move the right label after setting the text.
Label2.Point = new Point(Label1.Right + 5, Y-coord);
An easier way would be to play about with the labels properties in the designer.

You could also try to anchor label1 to the right and label2 to the left. That way you should have a clean middle line, and as the text grows larger it pushes outwards on does not overlap inwards over each other.
However you need an object to anchor to and luckily the SplitContainer works excellent for this.
Also consider setting the autosize property to off and maxing the widths of the labels. Large enough for the string you expect.

Have you considered making it one label?
As in
theOnlyLabel.Text = $"{dataObject.FirstName} {dataObject.LastName}";
or, if you're using textboxes, something like
theOnlyLabel.Text = $"{txtFirstName.Text} {txtLastName.Text}";
Otherwise, I'm afraid, you'd have to realign these two labels every time your first or last name changes.

Is there a way to get the bounds of a TabPage in a Winforms TabControl?

I have a Form with only a single TabControl, with many tabs, where each tab has only square buttons side by side. I am trying to make it so that when the user clicks on a tab, the form resizes itself to a size where you can see all the buttons in a particular tab or a size where you can see all the tabs, whichever is greater.
I am just curious if there is a way to query where the last control in a tab page is? So I can just do something like:
tabForm.Width = currentTabPage.UsedContentBorder + 10;
Or do I have to do this by adding all the controls and the sizes between them, etc?

You want to find out the maximum coordinates of all controls in a specific tab? Easy with LINQ:
int right = tab.Controls.Cast<Control>().Max(c => c.Right);
int bottom = tab.Controls.Cast<Control>().Max(c => c.Bottom);
Now, to properly choose the size of the form, I imagine you just have to figure out how much larger the Form is than its TabPages... I would guess something like this:
int extraWidth = form.Width - tabControl.SelectedTab.Width;
int extraHeight = form.Height - tabControl.SelectedTab.Height;
Then you just do
form.Size = new Size(right + extraWidth, bottom + extraHeight);
(the TabControl will resize automatically if its Anchor property is set to all four sides.) It occurs to me that this may malfunction if the user resizes the form very small... you may be able to compensate by calculating extraWidth and extraHeight in the Form.Load event and then saving those values for when you need them later.

How to dock a windows form in C#?

I just would like to know if it is possible to dock a windows form on top of the user screen? I have been trying to do this by manually setting the position of my form to the coordinates I want. But using this method, however, allows the user to change the position of the form just by dragging it. I want to make the form docked to the upper portion of the screen since this window form will server as a menu for the project I am making.
Thanks a lot. :)

I would consider using the Control.Dock property along with one of the DockStyle enumeration values.
You might need to play with the Layout too, so that you may layout your form's controls differently depending on the DockStyle selected.
You will need, in my point of view, to consider the Control.Location property so that you get to know which DockStyle value to dock your form with.
EDIT #1
Your Windows Form has a Dock property as it inherits from Control.
Let's consider the following :
Each time your form comes closer to your right-side of the screen, for example, or of the MDI container, you want to dock right, right ? (Little word play here... =P) So, you have to subscribe to the Control.LocationChanged event.
private void myForm_LocationChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) {
if (this.Location.X > 900) then
this.Dock = DockStyle.Right;
else if (this.Location.X < 150) then
this.Dock = DockStyle.Left;
else if (this.Location.Y > 600) then
this.Dock = DockStyle.Bottom;
else if (this.Location.Y < 150) then
this.Dock = DockStyle.Top;
else
this.Dock = DockStyle.None;
}
Indeed, instead of constant values, you should use the current desktop resolution and calculate a ratio from it where you want your docking to occur.
***Disclaimer:****This code is provided as-is and has not been tested. This algorithm is hopefully enough to guide you through the docking process as you need it. Further assistance may be brought upon request.* =)
It seems the Form.DesktopLocation property is the righter tool for the job as for your main window, meaning your MDI container, for instance. As for the other windows, I would go along with something that looks like the code sample provided.
Does this help?
EDIT #2
If you want to prevent Form's overlapping, perhaps the Control.BringToFront() method could do it before or after your call to the Control.Show() method, depending on what works best for you.

So after some tweaks I finally was able to get this code working.
this.DesktopLocation = new Point((Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Width / 2 - 420), 0);
I placed that line below the InitializeComponent() and it docks my form to the center of the screen with whatever resolution values.

By setting the FormBorderStyle of your form to None, you take the drag handle away from the user so they cannot move it via the mouse.
Then you just need to place it where you want.
If you really want to take away the users options you can also set the ShowInTaskbar property to false

How do I right align controls in a StatusStrip?

I am trying to right align a control in a StatusStrip. How can I do that?
I don't see a property to set on ToolStripItem controls that specifies their physical alignment on the parent StatusStrip.
How do I get Messages drop down to be right aligned? http://i.friendfeed.com/ed90b205f64099687db30553daa79d075f280b90

Found it via MSDN forums almost immediately after posting :)
You can use a ToolStripLabel to pseudo right align controls by setting the Text property to string.Empty and setting the Spring property to true. This will cause it to fill all of the available space and push all the controls to the right of the ToolStripLabel over.

For me it took two simple steps:
Set MyRightIntendedToolStripItem.Alignment to Right
Set MyStatusStrip.LayoutStyle to HorizontalStackWithOverflow

As an added note this is due to the fact that in the Win32 API a cell is either fixed width or fills the remaining space -1
int statwidths[] = {100, -1};
SendMessage(hStatus, SB_SETPARTS, sizeof(statwidths)/sizeof(int), (LPARAM)statwidths);
SendMessage(hStatus, SB_SETTEXT, 0, (LPARAM)"Hi there :)");
If memory serves me correctly you can have only one fill cell (-1) per statusbar.
You could also add a third middle cell and give this the fill property to get a more concistent looking StatusBar. Consistent because Messages has an inset to its left right where you'd expect it. A bit like the mspaint shot found on the MSDN page for StatusBars
I like the creative appreach though :D

You can display the Button at the end of the StatusStrip by using the logic below.
Add a ToolstripLabel to the StatusStrip
Set text as string.Empty
Set Padding for the ToolstripLabel
For example:
this.toolStripStatusLabel1.Padding = new Padding((int)(this.Size.Width - 75), 0, 0, 0);

Keep a Toolstrip label , set Spring property as true and for label align text in BottomLeft

I found that you can set the StatusStrip Layout to HorizontalStackWithOverflow.
Then, for each control on the StatusStrip that you want on the right side, set the control Alignment to Right.
I like this better since you don't need any extra or dummy controls to align.

If you set a status strip label control’s Spring property to true, then that label takes up any space not used by other controls in the StatusStrip.

Set the RightToLeft tool strip property to True.

Centering controls within a form in .NET (Winforms)?

I'm trying to center a fixed size control within a form.
Out of interest, is there a non-idiotic way of doing this? What I really want is something analogous to the text-align css property.
At the moment, I'm setting the padding property of the surrounding form to a suitable size and setting the Dock property of the control to fill.

You could achieve this with the use of anchors. Or more precisely the non use of them.
Controls are anchored by default to the top left of the form which means when the form size will be changed, their distance from the top left side of the form will remain constant. If you change the control anchor to bottom left, then the control will keep the same distance from the bottom and left sides of the form when the form if resized.
Turning off the anchor in a direction will keep a control centered when resizing, if it is already centered. In general, a control not anchored maintains its proportional position to the dialog. E.g. If you put a control at X=75% of the dialog width and turn off left/right anchors, the control will maintain its center at X=75% of the dialog width.
NOTE: Turning off anchoring via the properties window in VS2015 may require entering None (instead of default Top,Left)

myControl.Left = (this.ClientSize.Width - myControl.Width) / 2 ;
myControl.Top = (this.ClientSize.Height - myControl.Height) / 2;

Since you don't state if the form can resize or not there is an easy way if you don't care about resizing (if you do care, go with Mitch Wheats solution):
Select the control -> Format (menu option) -> Center in Window -> Horizontally or Vertically

I found a great way to do this and it will work with multiple controls. Add a TableLayout with 3 columns. Make the center column an absolute size (however much room you need). Set the two outside columns to 100%. Add a Panel to the center column and add any controls you need and place them where you want. That center panel will now remain centered in your form.

To center Button in panel o in other container follow this step:
At design time set the position
Go to properties Anchor of the button and set this value as the follow image

In addition, if you want to align it to the center of another control:
//The "ctrlParent" is the one on which you want to align "ctrlToCenter".
//"ctrlParent" can be your "form name" or any other control such as "grid name" and etc.
ctrlToCenter.Parent = ctrlParent;
ctrlToCenter.Left = (ctrlToCenter.Parent.Width - ctrlToCenter.Width) / 2;
ctrlToCenter.Top = (ctrlToCenter.Parent.Height - ctrlToCenter.Height) / 2;

You can put the control you want to center inside a Panel and set the left and right padding values to something larger than the default. As long as they are equal and your control is anchored to the sides of the Panel, then it will appear centered in that Panel. Then you can anchor the container Panel to its parent as needed.

It involves eyeballing it (well I suppose you could get out a calculator and calculate) but just insert said control on the form and then remove any anchoring (anchor = None).

you can put all your controls to panel and then write a code to move your panel to center of your form.
panelMain.Location =
new Point(ClientSize.Width / 2 - panelMain.Size.Width / 2,
ClientSize.Height / 2 - panelMain.Size.Height / 2);
panelMain.Anchor = AnchorStyles.None;

To keep the control centered even the form or parent control were resize.
Set the following properties of the parent element (you can set it through the property window):
parentControl.AutoSize = true;
parentControl.AutoSizeMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoSizeMode.GrowAndShrink;
Put this code in the Resize event of the form or the parent control (if the control is inside of another control).
controlToCenter.Left = (parentControl.Width- controlToCenter.Width) / 2;
controlToCenter.Top = (parentControl.Height - controlToCenter.Height) / 2;
If the parent control is docked to the form, add this line of code.
//adjust this based on the layout of your form
parentControl.Height = this.ClientSize.Height;

So, I am currently working on a pagination control and I came up with the following to achieve the below result.
Add a PanelLayout to your container (e.g. form or usercontrol)
Set the PanelLayout properties:
Dock: Bottom (or Top)
AutoSize: False
This will center the PanelLayout horizontally.
Now, in your codebehind, do something like this:
public MyConstructor()
{
InitializeComponent();
for (var i = 0; i<10; i++)
{
AddButton(i);
}
}
void AddButton(int i)
{
var btn = new Button();
btn.Width = 30;
btn.Height = 26;
btn.Text = i.ToString();
this.flowLayoutPanel1.Controls.Add(btn);
btn.Anchor = AnchorStyles.None;
}
There is a ceveat, however. If I make my form too small (horizontally) buttons will "disappear" outside of the viewport. In my case, that's not a problem, but you could take care of this by writing code that listens to the Resize event, and remove elements (buttons) based on the viewport Width.