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Is there a way to dynamically generate code to interact with buttons in C#?

I'm trying to find a a way to be able to essentially dynamically generate code based on an input.
For example I could type something like:
int Number = 22;
Button<Number>.Text = "X";
So in this case it would set button22 to have its text be an "X".
And I could change it so that I could input, for example 24 into the program and it would then set button24 to be an "X", instead of setting up a bunch of if statements to cover every potential button press.
For further context I have a Grid of 64 buttons and I need to be able to edit them individually to show to the user which buttons have been pressed, it is possible to do it with a lot of if statements but I thought it might be worth trying to find a more elegant solution.

You could have a list of buttons:
private List<Button> _buttons = new List<Button>();
Populate it like this:
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
var b = new Button();
b.Text = $"Button #{i}";
b.Click += HandleButtonClick;
}
And you could even set an event handler on one of its events which doesn't even need to use the list (the sender is the source of the event):
private void HandleButtonClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
(sender as Button).Text = "X";
}

Buttons have a Tag property that can be used to hold arbitrary data about a button, this is described for WinForms, WPF and UWP.
Simple usage that is similar to OP's requirement is demonstrated in this SO post
This situation is in a practical sense the very reason that .Tag exists at all in user interface controls pretty much from the birth of c#.
So you do not need to use a custom class for a button, just simply assign your value to the .Tag property on the Button class that you are creating programmatically:
in this example a list is used to create the buttons and separate the creation from the layout, it is not necessary to do this, but may be useful. Instead, you could assign this button to it's parent container and/or set the layout margins or coordinates without keeping a reference to the Button object at all.
If OP updates the post to include implementation examples, we can update this response with more specific and complete code.
private List<Button> _buttons = new List<Button>();
// ... iteration or switching logic
var nextButton = new Button
{
Text = "x",
Tag = 22
};
nextButton.Click += DynamicButton_Click;
_buttons.Add(nextButton);
// ... later push the buttons into the parent container or bind to the UI
Then the button click handler you can access this Tag property:
this is presented from WinForms, the only difference in UWP or WPF is the method signature, change EventArgs to RoutedEventArgs
private void DynamicButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if(int.TryParse((sender as Button).Tag?.ToString(), out int buttonValue))
{
// use buttonValue
Console.Out.WriteLine(buttonValue);
}
else
{
// Otherwise, sender was not a button, or the button did not have an integer tag value
// either way, handle that error state here...
}
}
Using these concepts, once the buttons are created, let's say in some simple grid alignment, you could allow the user to set this Tag value at runtime if you have a TextBox (or other) input field that can be accessed from the code.
I recommend that you use MVVM style bindings for this rather than directly referencing a TextBox control, but this is simply to demonstrate the point.
private void DynamicButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// assign the string value from the ButtonValueTextbox control to this button
string value = this.ButtonValueTextBox.Text;
if(sender is Button button)
{
button.Tag = value;
}
else
{
// Otherwise, sender was not a button
// handle the error state here if you need to...
}
}
Now that each button has a tag, you could easily add logic to maintain unique tag values by iterating through the other buttons and clearing the tag if it was previously assigned to a different button.

Maybe you could keep a List of Button References:
var myButtons = new List<Button>();
myButtons.Add(firstButton);
myButtons.Add(secondButton);
// ... etc
// ... then somewhere else
int number = 3;
myButtons[number].Text = "xxx";

Clear ComboBox if RadioButton is deactivated

I have five RadioButton and five ComboBox controls.
Each RadioButton is connected to a ComboBox.
When I activate one RadioButton, the corresponding ComboBox, it gets enabled.
Now when I choose another RadioButton, the information in the previously selected ComboBox should clear but does not!
I have tried with ComboBox.Clear() as well as ComboBox.Reset(), but it doesn't work.
Here is my code for one of the ComboBox and RadioButton
if (radioButtondinner.Checked == true)
{
comboBoxdinner.DataSource = DList.Dwork();
comboBoxdinner.DisplayMember = "dinner";
}

As I said in comment: you can use one Combobox and only to change data sources when you check other RadioButton that should work sure
But If you want to have more Combobox then just type in else statements
comboBox.DataSource = null;

// create a check change event and use this.
private void radioButtondinner_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!radioButtondinner.Checked)
{
// if you want to clear only the text or selected item text
comboBoxdinner.Text = String.Empty;
// if you want to clear the entire data source
comboBoxdinner.DataSource = null;
}
}

Remove something added by a particular event - c#

I have a piece of code that will add the selected item of a combobox to a listbox when a checkbox is checked. I would like to remove that selected item to be removed from the listbox when the checkbox is unchecked.
My problem is I cant simply repeat the code for removal to be the same as add because the combobox selection will different or empty when unchecked.
This is how it currently looks:
private void CBwasher_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (checkBox1.Checked == true)
{
listBox2.Items.Add(comboBox1.SelectedItem);
}
if (checkBox1.Checked == false)
{
listBox2.Items.Remove(comboBox1.SelectedItem);
}
So I need a way of removing whatever was added by that check change instead of removing the selected index of the combobox. Please consider that there may be multiple lines in the listbox added by multiple different checkboxes.

You simply need to store the added item and remove it.
private object addedItem;
private void CBwasher_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (checkBox1.Checked)
{
addedItem = comboBox1.SelectedItem;
listBox2.Items.Add(addedItem);
}
else
{
listBox2.Items.Remove(addedItem);
}
}
You may also need to check SelectedItem is null before adding/removing the item.

Focusing on the part where you said there might be multiple different checkboxes,
you need to store one item per checkbox.
You can write your own child class of the checbox control to add this feature, or simply use the Tag property.
You can also indicate which checkbox is linked to which combobox in the same way. Either child class or use the Tag property.
In my example, I'll assume you've referenced the combobox from the checkbox using the Tag property.
You can do it manually like this
checkBox1.Tag = comboBox1;
or hopefully you can automate it if you are generating these on the fly.
Here is the general idea of how the checkbox event should look.
The event is is utilising the sender argument, which means you should hook up all your checkboxes CheckedChanged events to this one handler. No need to create separate handlers for each.
private void CBwasher_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var checkBox = (CheckBox)sender;
var comboBox = (ComboBox)checkBox.Tag;
if (checkBox.Checked && comboBox.SelectedItem != null)
{
listBox2.Items.Add(comboBox.SelectedItem);
comboBox.Tag = comboBox.SelectedItem;
}
if (!checkBox.Checked && comboBox.Tag != null)
{
listBox2.Items.Remove(comboBox.Tag);
}
}

Create or generate a control based on database results

How do I create a control in a windows form application? I want to generate a textbox or a radio button when I select something from a Combobox. I basically want to query my database, and based on the values of the fields, I want to generate a textbox or a radio button. For example, if my query returns a value of "Textbox", I want to generate a textbox on the form in a specified location. How does one accomplish this? Please help.

The easiest way is to create the control manually in code and then add it to the Controls collection. Deciding which control to create depending on some input data (whether it's database query or a value selected from a combobox) is not much different then in any other case. Simple if will do the job. For instance:
private void AddControl(string control)
{
if (control == "Textbox")
{
TextBox tb = new TextBox();
tb.Location = new Point(100, 100);
this.Controls.Add(tb);
}
else if (control == "Radio")
{
RadioButton rb = new RadioButton();
rb.Location = new Point(200, 100);
this.Controls.Add(rb);
}
}
Of course, it's very naive version. But it's only a starting point. I leave to you adding more advanced logic (like dynamically adjusting location, setting up properties of the radio button or the textbox, relying on Type instead of on a simple string, etc.)
The assumption is that you retrieve a string value from the database. For example in form's constructor:
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
string requestedControl = QueryDatabase();
AddControl(requestedControl);
}
I leave to you implementing the method to query the database.
In the question you also mentioned adding a control after selecting it in the combobox. In this case the only difference is that you rely on an event triggered after combobox's selection changed:
private void comboBox1_SelectedValueChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string res = this.comboBox1.SelectedItem.ToString();
this.AddControl(res);
}
Here you rely on SelectedValueChanged event. Of course, in this case your combobox has to be populated with expected values (here "Radio" and "Textbox"). Also, you have to attach the event handler to the specific event on the combobox. You can do that in designer or by adding in the constructor the following line:
combobox1.SelectedValueChanged += comboBox1_SelectedValueChanged;
Hope that clarifies the issue and sets up some starting point for you to continue from.

How to update ListView's selected item?

I have a ListView which displays multiple rows of ListViewItems. The user is able to edit one of these items through a dialog which opens after clicking 'Edit.' When the dialog closes I would like to modify the selected ListViewItem such that it reflects the new settings.
Here is how I currently update my item:
private void btnEditSnmpV3Setting_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (lstVwSNMPv3Settings.SelectedItems.Count > 0)
{
ListViewItem selectedItem = lstVwSNMPv3Settings.SelectedItems[0];
NetworkDiscoverySnmpSetting settings = (NetworkDiscoverySnmpSetting)selectedItem.Tag;
NetworkDiscoverySnmpV3SettingsDialog dialog = new NetworkDiscoverySnmpV3SettingsDialog(settings);
//Pass in the owner for centering of dialog.
if (dialog.ShowDialog(this) == DialogResult.OK)
{
selectedItem.SubItems.Clear();
selectedItem.Text = settings.SnmpV3Username;
selectedItem.SubItems.Add(settings.SecurityMode.ToString());
selectedItem.SubItems.Add(settings.AuthenticationProtocol.ToString());
selectedItem.SubItems.Add(settings.PrivacyProtocol.ToString());
selectedItem.Tag = settings;
}
}
}
I found this to be a poor solution due to the fact that I need to touch code in multiple places if my ListView's number of columns changes.
I handled this code-reuse issue during the 'Add' event (as opposed to 'Edit') by giving NetworkDiscoverySnmpSetting a utility method:
public ListViewItem ToListViewItem()
{
ListViewItem listViewItem = new ListViewItem();
listViewItem.Text = SnmpV3Username;
listViewItem.SubItems.Add(SecurityMode.ToString());
listViewItem.SubItems.Add(AuthenticationProtocol.ToString());
listViewItem.SubItems.Add(PrivacyProtocol.ToString());
listViewItem.Tag = this;
return listViewItem;
}
which is used like so:
private void btnAddSnmpV3Setting_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
NetworkDiscoverySnmpSetting settings = new NetworkDiscoverySnmpSetting(NetworkDiscovery.ID);
NetworkDiscoverySnmpV3SettingsDialog dialog = new NetworkDiscoverySnmpV3SettingsDialog(settings);
//Pass in the owner for centering of dialog.
if (dialog.ShowDialog(this) == DialogResult.OK)
lstVwSNMPv3Settings.Items.Add(settings.ToListViewItem());
}
Unfortunately, ListView.SelectedItems does not allow collection-modification. As such, this does not compile:
lstVwSNMPv3Settings.SelectedItems[0] = settings.ToListViewItem();
How should I change my first code-snippet so that I do not need to update my code in multiple places when ListView's columns change?

You can modify the element itself rather than replacing it with another one, because ListViewItem is a class, so it's a reference type.
In order to do this follow these steps:
get currently selected item and save it to variable like this: ListViewItem selectedItem = lstVwSNMPv3Settings.SelectedItems[0];
modify your ToListViewItem method to void ToListViewItem(ListViewItem listViewItem) (return void and take ListViewItem object as parameter and modify it instead of creating a new object. It should also rather modify properties of existing subitems than creating new ones. It can look more or less like this:
public void ToListViewItem(ListViewItem listViewItem)
{
listViewItem.Text = SnmpV3Username;
listViewItem.SubItems[0].Text = SecurityMode.ToString();
listViewItem.SubItems[1].Text = AuthenticationProtocol.ToString();
listViewItem.SubItems[2].Text = PrivacyProtocol.ToString();
listViewItem.Tag = this;
}
call ToListViewItem(selectedItem);
you don't have to assign the modified item back to the collection, because you use a reference, which means you've just modify the same object that's in the ListView
I did a quick test and the method seems to modify texts of existing items without issues.

ListViewItems have a bool Selected property that you can toggle to make them selected or not selected.

A much simpler solution, that worked for me:
lstVwSNMPv3Settings.Items[lstVwSNMPv3Settings.SelectedIndices[0]] = myNewItem;
But be careful to first make sure there is an item selected:
if (lstVwSNMPv3Settings.SelectedIndices.Count > 0) { ... }