asked on

Extending NumericUpDown

Hi everyone ..
again .. I come up with a somehow difficult question

Everything I need is the NumericUpDown Control .. But there has to be a change ...

I want that control to display a unit behind the value ..

Example:
I want a control which can output ("100 V"). When I press the Up-Button it should switch to "101 V".

Does anyone know how to do this ?

The reason:
I have one base form, from which another form is derived. Only the base class should contain code, not the derived one. So If a user wants to develop a form based upon my base class, the feature that the numericupdown can display a unit should already be available.
(I don't want a custom control - the user should be able to drag/drop the NumericUpDown control from the toolsbox in visualstudio onto the form)

Another possible solution would be:
* If the user chooses the NumericUpDown control, it should be automatically replaced by a user control (designed by me)

I give out 500 points .. since I have no idea how to do that :)

somnatic

ASKER

3rd possible solution:

A simple textBox is used to display text and hold a number at the same time (number 13 -> text 13V).

BUT: The developer only must dragdrop a normal TextBox from the Toolbox to the Form ..

SOLUTION

eternal_21

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somnatic

ASKER

because it might contain values like 0.1 V or 0.001 A as well .. but 2000V may be possible as well ..

Bob Learned

One suggestion that I would have would be to add code in the base class that scans for NumericUpDown controls, and add label controls that would be positioned next to each of the controls, and accept whatever unit that user wishes.

Bob

somnatic

ASKER

hmm .quite problematic since it's likely that there are multiple numericupdown controls (close) next to each other ...

and I can't tell a developer who uses my "template" to "leave some space between numericUpDowns" ..

if you know what I mean ..
I could resize them .. but problematic as well ..

Bob Learned

Well, if you don't want a custom control, then you have a very narrow opportunity for success, and it would require some very complex magic to accomplish, which is beyond my capabilities.

You would need to be able to detect a NumericUpDown control being dropped onto a form in design time, and I wouldn't know how to accomplish that. I would be very interested if someone did, though:)

Bob

somnatic

ASKER

I feared it would be that hard ..

What about:
I create a inherited, say .. TextBox with some functions which suit my needs well ..

I call it NumericTextBox and derive it from TextBox
I'd do all of this in my base form ..

When another developer now creates a form which is inherited from mine.

He adds, say . .2 textboxes to it

Could I make my NumericControl replace his textboxes or would he have to change all occurences of Control.TextBox to NumerictextBox

??
Any idea about that ?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Bob Learned

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somnatic

ASKER

ok ..
since no perfect idea came up I do now use a custom control ..
well . .actually it's an inherited control (I used TextBox to inherit from, since I want to display some text as well) ... but it's inside a DLL .. so ...

bah .. never mind .. thanks for helping ..
:)