Question

Setting up a radio group in Visual Studio 2008 C++

Asked by: Barthax

I find myself required to create a simple MFC-based Visual Studio 2008 C++ project which requires a pair of radio dials used as a group.  Seems I've been in the lap of luxury with other RAD tools... This one seems to have dropped the R from RAD. :(

I have popped a Group Box onto the dialogue design & a pair of radio dials ontop of the group box.  I've noticed that I can move the group box around the form without affecting the position of the radio dials - and I can move the radio dials off the group box.  When I run the app, there's no tie-in between the two radio dials - the two appear to be entirely independent.  Also, neither one is on by default.

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Asked On
2009-10-29 at 10:10:33ID24855360
Tags

radio group

,

visual studio 2008

,

c++

Topics

Microsoft Visual C++

,

Visual Studio

,

Microsoft Visual C++.Net

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
10

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Answers

 

by: AndyAinscowPosted on 2009-10-29 at 10:36:20ID: 25696121

Properties of the controls.
Group should be set to on for the first radio button, tab should be on.
The groupbox should also have both set on.  
Second radio button - both off.


There is no ownership as such (unlike what you seem to be used to) but this can be very useful, you are less restricted when you design the form, as you notice radio buttons do not need to be inside a group box (or even have a group box).


Now select the first radio button on the form, right click with mouse and choose add member variable.  This will (should) generate code in the .cpp file of the dialog - there you can set a value to determine which, if any, radio is the default one - again behaviour than can be useful.

 

by: dericstonePosted on 2009-10-29 at 12:50:16ID: 25697533

One more tip: You might find it necessary to open the .rc file in the text editor and rearrange the order of the controls. It works best if the radio buttons are in consecutive order in the .rc file with the first one being the one with the group property set.

A trick I use is to use Find in Files to search for the name of a radio button control. Then double click on the search results to open the .rc file in a text editor. Then just cut and past the entire lines until the radio buttons are one right after another. See example below.

IDD_RADIOBUTTONSMFC_DIALOG DIALOGEX 0, 0, 320, 200
STYLE DS_SETFONT | DS_MODALFRAME | DS_FIXEDSYS | WS_POPUP | WS_VISIBLE | WS_CAPTION | WS_SYSMENU
EXSTYLE WS_EX_APPWINDOW
CAPTION "RadioButtonsMFC"
FONT 8, "MS Shell Dlg", 0, 0, 0x1
BEGIN
    DEFPUSHBUTTON   "OK",IDOK,209,179,50,14
    PUSHBUTTON      "Cancel",IDCANCEL,263,179,50,14
    CTEXT           "TODO: Place dialog controls here.",IDC_STATIC,10,96,300,8
    GROUPBOX        "Static",IDC_STATIC,152,25,131,64
    CONTROL         "Radio1",IDC_RADIO1,"Button",BS_AUTORADIOBUTTON | WS_GROUP,194,46,74,12
    CONTROL         "Radio2",IDC_RADIO2,"Button",BS_AUTORADIOBUTTON,185,70,38,10
END
                                              
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by: BarthaxPosted on 2009-10-30 at 03:28:54ID: 25701583

Arrgghh, this IDE is terrible!  Second (stupid?) question before I can try out your first answer: how do I get to the design view back again?

 

by: AndyAinscowPosted on 2009-10-30 at 03:43:23ID: 25701634

Resource tab - open the tree to see the resources in the project (if you have multiple projects in the solution) - dialogs - select your dialog with a double click.


(MFC was there in the early days of windows - 16 bit OP system so some things don't have the advantage of a clean slate approach such as the .net environment)

 

by: AndyAinscowPosted on 2009-10-30 at 03:45:29ID: 25701642

ps.  You can modify the tab order directly in the resource editor, modifying the rc file is also possible.

 

by: BarthaxPosted on 2009-10-30 at 04:09:22ID: 25701761

Thanks.  :D

In the Add Member Variable Wizard, only the one radio control is available as an option.  If I set the Category to Control I have a Variable type option of CButton - doesn't seem to fit the workings of a radio dial.  If I set the Category to Value I have two Variable type options: BOOL or int.  The BOOL makes sense for a single option but that wouldn't make design sense.  The int option seems to be the way to go, therefore.  How would I detect which of the two radio buttons (IDC_RADIO1 or IDC_RADIO2) is selected at runtime?


OT: I've worked with Windows long enough to remember when a resource editor was a separate program entirely.  However, between then & now I've been in the lap of luxury (by comparison) with Delphi & a smattering of VB. ;)  Neither of these require a group box - just good design, in my view.

 

by: dericstonePosted on 2009-10-30 at 05:01:01ID: 25702040

The category Control will give you a variable of type CButton (yes, that is the control used for a radio "button"), so you would get direct access to all the properties of the control.
The category Value will give you a variable of type BOOL (I believe that will indicate checked or unchecked for the particular radio button) and int (which will give you an index value equivalent to the index of which radio button is selected.
You can detect which radio button is selected by comparing the int variable with the index of the ordered controls (order in which they are listed in the .rc file). Or you could individually check the Checked property of each control.

 

by: AndyAinscowPosted on 2009-10-30 at 05:16:37ID: 25702145

Correct only the first radio should appear for the choice.
Select a variable type - it should then give you an int type in the code.  When you use the UpdateData function then MFC will check the appropriate button (return which button is checked) as a zero based value.
So if you have 5 radio buttons they have the values 0, 1, 2, 3, 4.

 

by: BarthaxPosted on 2009-10-30 at 07:11:53ID: 25703103

Wow, I have been spoiled all these years - this isn't far off the reason I ditched ASM Windows programming all those years back.

I've had to look up UpdateDate() to understand what it was & does and I've stumbled across the need for _T() for any constant text uses too!  Well, my respect for anyone dealing in MFC day to day just went up a little. ;)  ... and my expectation of the number of bugs they're likely to create did too. :(

I now have three working Radio buttons, thank you. :D  (I added another one to see how things get affected.)

 

by: BarthaxPosted on 2009-10-30 at 07:13:31ID: 31647616

Thanks guys. ;)

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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