I have a simple function which loops through all the controls on a form searching for a specific one:

    Public Function FindControl(ByVal ctrls As Control.ControlCollection, ByVal ctrlName As String) As Control

        For Each ctrl As Control In ctrls
            If ctrl.Name = ctrlName.Trim Then
                Return ctrl
            End If
            If ctrl.HasChildren Then
                FindControl(ctrl.Controls, ctrlName)
            End If
        Next
        Return Nothing
    End Function

Anyone know of a more efficient way of directly referencing the control since I know it's name? Once I find it I need to set various properties of the control.

Thanks,
Tamarack

For example, if it is a textbox you could do this:

------------------------------------------------------------
CType(ctrl, TextBox).ReadOnly = True
------------------------------------------------------------

Replace whatever "ReadOnly" with the specific property you want to get or set.

J

Thanks for the quick reply.

You are assuming I already know which control I need to manipulate. But I don't - that's why I have the looping construct. I would like to replace the entire looping process with a direct reference to the control based on it's Name property.

Tamarack

OK, then see if this helps you out more:

-------------------------------------------------
Dim ctrl as Control

For Each ctrl In GroupBox.Controls
      If (ctrl.GetType.ToString = "System.Windows.Forms.TextBox") Then
          CType(ctrl, TextBox).Text = ""
      ElseIf (ctrl.GetType.ToString = "System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox") Then
          CType(ctrl, ComboBox).SelectedIndex = 2
      ElseIf (ctrl.GetType.ToString = "System.Windows.Forms.DateTimePicker") Then
          CType(ctrl, DateTimePicker).Value = Now()
      End If
Next
----------------------------------------------------

Here are just a few examples of looping through the controls in a groupbox, but you can do this with other containers(forms, panels). Simply replace the portions of the code with the control that you want to check and modify. Hope this helps.

J

After re-reading your last post (and I after I posted my reply), I have a feeling that I didn't really answer your question. I guess I still don't see what you are trying to do. If you know the control's name as you state in your first post, why don't you just set it's properties by that?

J

You are correct, I do know the controls name. But how do I reference that control's properties simply by knowing it's name? I was hoping you would show an example in your last post because that is exactly what I'm looking for. The looping function I showed allows me to work with a strongly typed object so I can directly reference the properties because it finds the object given the name. But it is extremely inefficient. What I'm trying to do is exactly what you can do with an ADO recordset where you refer to a specific field by it's name:

myRecordset("txtFirstName") = "Robert"

I would like to do the same thing with the Controls collection of a given form:

myForm.Controls("txtFirstName").Text = "Robert"

Of course that is not allowed in .Net but I'm trying to find the equivalent. Basically, I need to refer to a control directly by using its name instead of looping through all the controls to find one that matches the name I already know.

I know it's a little confusing and I'm probably not explaining it very well, but thanks for any assistance.

Tamarack

OK, maybe:

For Each ctrl In GroupBox.Controls
      If (ctrl.GetType.ToString = "System.Windows.Forms.TextBox") Then
          If CType(ctrl, TextBox).Name = "txtFirstName" Then
              CType(ctrl, TextBox).Text = "Robert"
          End If
      End If
Next

Is this what you want?

J