Creating 100 buttons on a form

Hello all,

I need to create one hundred buttons on a form, which all behave with simaliar attributes. When each button is pressed it will have to remember that it was pressed and change color (eventually changing back to the original color when pressed again).

At any rate, rather than create one hundred buttons manually, can I do this using a class? Any code examples would be very helpful!

Thanks in advance,
Bob Delamater

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Dim i As Integer
Dim x As Integer

For i = 0 To 99
Dim btn As New Button()
btn.Text = "Button " & i.ToString
btn.Top = x
AddHandler btn.Click, New EventHandler(AddressOf Btn_click)
x = btn.Top + btn.Height
Me.Controls.Add(btn)
Next
End Sub
Private Sub Btn_click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
Dim btn As Button
btn = DirectCast(sender, Button)
If btn.BackColor.Equals(Color.Red) Then
btn.BackColor = Color.Gray
Else
btn.BackColor = Color.Red
End If
End Sub

DSJ, thanks for getting me started! That was a big help for sure. Maybe I can run this one by you.

I'd like to add the controls in the following format:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11121314151617181920
21222324252627282930
31323334353637383940
etc...

I have this code so far:

Private Sub frmMain_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Dim i As Integer
Dim x As Integer
Dim y As Integer
Dim z As Integer

For i = 0 To 99
Dim btn As New Button()
btn.Text = (i + 1).ToString
btn.Left = x
Select Case i
Case 10
btn.Top = btn.Top + 25
btn.Left = 0
Case 20
btn.Top = btn.Top + 50
btn.Left = 0
Case 30
btn.Top = btn.Top + 75
btn.Left = 0
Case 40
btn.Top = btn.Top + 100
btn.Left = 0
Case 50
btn.Top = btn.Top + 125
btn.Left = 0
Case 60
btn.Top = btn.Top + 150
btn.Left = 0
Case 70
btn.Top = btn.Top + 175
btn.Left = 0
Case 80
btn.Top = btn.Top + 200
btn.Left = 0
Case 90
btn.Top = btn.Top + 225
btn.Left = 0
End Select



btn.Height = 25
btn.Width = 25
x = btn.Left + btn.Width

AddHandler btn.Click, New EventHandler(AddressOf Btn_click)
'x = btn.Left + btn.Height
btn.BackColor = Color.CornflowerBlue
Me.Controls.Add(btn)
Next
End Sub



but, the code generates the buttons like this:

12345678910
11
21
31
41
51
61
71
81
91

Seems kind of odd... Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks again,
Bob

Wait! I got it.... I used a case 10 to 19, 20 to 29 statement and all is good!

Thanks again.

Bob

Thanks again DSJ for your great post! I took it a bit further and now I am running into another problem. I am attempting to change the backColor property on the previously instantiated buttons FROM a listbox_doubleClick event.

I thought it would be something like this:



If Me.Controls.Item(iSeatNumber).BackColor.Equals(Color.White) Then
Me.Controls.Item(iSeatNumber).BackColor.Equals(Color.CornflowerBlue)
'End If




iSeatNumber would be an integer and me.controls.item would essentially be one of the buttons created.

I also tried this:

btn(iSeatNumber).backcolor.equals(Color.White)

but intellisense says that the button cannot be accessed because it has no default property. Could it be that I need to pass the buttons object to the doubleClick event?

Any ideas on this would help a lot!

Bob

In one example you have btn.Top and the other btn(index).SomeProperty... are you saving them in an array when you create them? If not, btn(index) isn't valid... you should Dim btn(99) as Button at the class level and save them there as you create them so you can reference them later in your change event, otherwise you'll need to loop thru me.controls to find the button you need to change.

Thanks for the reply DSJ. I am not saving them in an array because quite simply, I haven't figured that out yet :).

So, I thought originally like you did, I should iterate through the controls to check the backcolor property and switch it from blue to white or vice versa based on the text of the list box...

for example

if listbox.items.item(i) = "Booked" then

If Me.Controls.Item(iSeatNumber).BackColor.Equals(Color.White) Then
Me.Controls.Item(iSeatNumber).BackColor.Equals(Color.CornflowerBlue)
'End If


doesn't seem to work though.

Bob