Using a control one time only

i can give a suggestion - create a class-scope variable, say

private int count = 0;

or

Dim private as Integer count = 0;

and in the first occurance of your control increment it:

count++

then, before doing your logic, you can check it :

if( count > 0 ) // skip
else // use logic

there're can quite a few ways to go, this's just one of 'em

regs,
yurich

Use a singleton pattern:

public class SingtletonImpl
{
     private static MyControl _myControl;

     public MyControl Instance
     {
          get
          {
               if( _myControl == null )
               {
                    _myControl = new MyControl();
               }

               return _myControl;
          }
     }
}

Now you can use this in your code:

SingtletonImpl.Instance.SomeMethodOfMyControl();
SingtletonImpl.Instance.SomePropertieOfMyControl = "melp";

The first time the 'Instance' propertie of the singletonImpl is called, there will be a new instance created. This instance will be stored in a private static variable and returned by the 'Instance' propertie of the singletonImpl.

An other thing, when you using a multithread environment use a lock:

public class SingtletonImpl
{
     private static MyControl _myControl;
     private static _myLockObj = new Object();

     public MyControl Instance
     {
          get
          {
               lock(_myLockObj)
               {
                    if( _myControl == null )
                    {
                         _myControl = new MyControl();
                    }
               }

               return _myControl;
          }
     }
}

I am a little unsure about how to implement this.
I basically want to make a label invisible if there is more implementation of this control on the page itself.
I need to find a way within the control itself to scale up to the page level and see if there is more than one instance of the control. If there is only one, i display the label, if not, I do not display the label...

Then you can walktrought the control collection of the page and lookup of there are more implementations and react on it.

In the Pre Render I did this...

System.Web.UI.Control control = this;
while(control.Parent != null)
{
   control = control.Parent;
}

now, how do I go about seeing if there is more than one instance of the ctrl I am in? I believe what I have above, brings me to the highest level in the page.