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HaydnH

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Delete all controls on a form

Hi All,

Has anyone ever tried to delete all the controls on a form from vba? I'm using the following code behind a command button on a different form to "MyForm":

____________________________________________________________

  Dim ctl As Control

  DoCmd.OpenForm "MyForm", acDesign, WindowMode:=acWindowNormal
 
  For Each ctl In Forms!MyForm.Controls
    'MsgBox ctl.Name
    DeleteControl frm, ctl.Name
  Next
____________________________________________________________


For some reason a random selection of the controls are deleted and a few remain! If I add another for loop like:

For i = 0 To 3
  For Each ctl In Forms!MyForm.Controls
    'MsgBox ctl.Name
    DeleteControl frm, ctl.Name
  Next
Next

it works!!

Haydn.
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jadedata
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Hey HaydnH!

  "DELETE CONTROLS" - slow down cowboy!!  Is there a really good reason to delete vs. say maybe just making the visible property False??

regards
Jack
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stevbe

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HaydnH

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Thanks steve - that works fine... (well it works as below)... any idea why you have to do this? why can't you just delete them all by name as I have tried above??

                                                         \/
For i = Forms!MyForm.Controls.Count - 1 To 0 Step -1
    DeleteControl Forms!MyForm, Forms!MyForm.Controls(i).Name
Next


Hi Jack,

The reason I want to delete the controls is because I'm playing around trying to learn a little more =P

Haydn.
ahhhhh,... ok then!!  (that's exactly how I learned it...)
When do you expect you'll be seeing an opportunity to use this new found tidbit??  
You must have had some scenario in mind???
What happens is that a collection automatically resets itself after you delete objects so if you delete one then the one that was in the next position has moverd into the first position and the code says to move to thwe next item in the control. You haqd to add the .Count -1 because the collection is 0 based so you have 10 items but their positions in the collection are 0-9.

Steve
the lesson could be generically applicaed to deleting items from a collection ???
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ASKER

"When do you expect you'll be seeing an opportunity to use this new found tidbit??"

Not sure - it would probably be easier than creating a new form from code as you could save all those little formatting rules, cangrow, backcolor etc etc without having to change them again after creating the new form...

I was thinking it might be useful if you have the following conditions:

 - you might need N controls of the same type - never knowing the max number
 - the controls might be referenced from other forms so that the name must remain the same


I have a project in mind, I'll explain a little more tomorrow (going to the company x-mas dinner now) =)

Haydn.
:).... ahhhh, the learning curve...!!
you could save all those little formatting rules

you can save this by crerating a generic form with all of  the various control types, set background, whatever then Format | AutoFormat | Customize, Create a new Autoformat based on form xxx, now set the default form style for your app in Tools | Options | Forms/Reports type in the name of the autoformat you just created.

Steve
Maybe I'm the only one left that builds the recordset and then uses that to set the form controls....  :)
Hey Jack,

Do you mean that you create controls at runtime or that you set the format properties according to your table?

Steve
I will usually NOT set things like Format/InputMask/Required/AllowZeroLen on the table.  I will set these properties only on the form.  Like this I can change the INTERFACE to effect changes, not a bunch of table changes against production tables.
Interesting, I put Format and Input mask onto the form because they are interface properties and Required and Allow ZeroLen on the table because they are data integrity properties. Do you read relationships from your table to be enforced at the form or capture the Form_Error that gets thrown when someone breaks the rules? I started on a UI table based that controls who can edit which fileds, which forms are updateable according to psuedo groups, because I have this down to the control level perhaps I could expand to include formatting / input mask ... hmmm have to think about this ...

Steve
If you have a relational integrity enforcement in place the Required property is not needed, the relationship error will pick up the slack.

I try to NEVER use AllowZeroLen,. I find nulls much easier to find and deal with then zero len field values.
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ASKER

hmmmm better remember to close this question.

Haydn.
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ASKER

p.s: Jack... if you want to see the sample db where I used this "tidbit" let me know your e-mail address =P

Haydn.