Asked by natural197. Answered by the Wonk on January 6, 2003

A.

In WinForms, anything that ultimately derives from the Control base class, including the Form class, has a collection of container controls called Controls. In a Form or UserControl, the InitializeComponent method adds controls to this collection:

Private Sub InitializeComponent()

  Me.Button1 = New System.Windows.Forms.Button()

  Me.CheckBox1 = New System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox()

  Me.ComboBox1 = New System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox()

  Me.Label1 = New System.Windows.Forms.Label()

  ...

  Me.Controls.AddRange( _

    New System.Windows.Forms.Control() { _

      Me.Label1, _

      Me.ComboBox1, _

      Me.CheckBox1, _

      Me.Button1})

  ...

End Sub

At any time, the control container can access these controls:

Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) _

  Handles MyBase.Load

  Dim control As Control

  For Each control In Me.Controls

    MessageBox.Show(control.Name)

  Next

End Sub

Based on this, you could handle the accept button on your form to check whether all text boxes have been filled with data:

Sub okButton_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) _

  Handles okButton.Click

  Dim control As Control

  For Each control In Me.Controls

    ' Check each control to see if it's a TextBox

    If TypeOf (control) Is TextBox Then

      Dim textbox As TextBox = control

      ' Check each TextBox for Text

      If textbox.Text = "" Then

        ' Complain

        MessageBox.Show("Please enter text into all text boxes!")

        ' Set TextBox for input

        Me.ActiveControl = textbox

        ' Don't let the Form go away

        Me.DialogResult = DialogResult.None

        ' Stop checking

        Return

      End If

    End If

  Next

  ' Let the Form go away

  Me.DialogResult = DialogResult.OK

  Me.Close()

End Sub