asked on 5/18/2011

Quicker way to loop through certain controls

I have a lot of controls on my form and want to loop through eg the text boxes.

I'm currently using this
For Each Control In Controls

Is there a quicker way to get a collection of only the text boxes?

Visual Basic Classic

Last Comment

koossa

5/20/2011

Mike Tomlinson

5/18/2011

VB6 or VB.Net?

If VB6 then not really.
If VB.Net then you can use LINQ to grab just the type you are interested in.

For both, you can use a Collection (VB6) or a List(VB.Net) and iterate just ONCE at Form Load so you can add the controls to that Collection/List. Then future operations can simply iterate the stored references instead of iterating over all controls.

koossa

5/18/2011

ASKER

Hi, it is VB6

Can you give me a quick example of how to add the controls to a collection.
Is it at design time?

Mike Tomlinson

5/18/2011

It would happen at run-time...something like:

Dim TBs As New Collection

Private Sub Form_Load()
    Dim ctl As Control
    For Each ctl In Me.Controls
        If TypeOf ctl Is TextBox Then
            TBs.Add ctl, ctl
        End If
    Next
End Sub

' An Example of How to Iterate over the TextBoxes:
Private Sub Foo()
    Dim TB As Control
    For Each TB In TBs
        ' ... do something with "TB" ...
    Next TB
End Sub

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koossa

5/18/2011

ASKER

Ok, but my "For Each Control In Controls" is currently in my form_load and I want my form_load to be faster, is there any way to do that?

Mike Tomlinson

5/18/2011

Not really. You could side step the issue by using a Timer to delay the iteration of the Controls collection to after the form has been completely shown.

You could try giving the illusion that the form is loading faster by forcing the form to show itself before continuing on with other code:
*this doesn't really make it any faster!*

Private Sub Form_Load()
Me.Show
DoEvents

' ... continue with other code ...
End Sub

koossa

5/18/2011

ASKER

Can't I create a collection for example of textboxes in design time?

Mike Tomlinson

5/18/2011

Not that I'm aware of...not unless you make them all part of the same container like a GroupBox...and they would need to be the only thing in that container.

koossa

5/19/2011

ASKER

Ok, if I put them all in the same container, how would I then be able to loop through them?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Mike Tomlinson

5/19/2011