C# Input Box

Date Revised: August 18 2009

Visual Studio 2005 | C#

Sometimes when coding in VB it's sometimes nice to have access to a simple input box. As of C# 3.0, this feature still does not exist. I miss that feature in C# but not to worry, it's fairly easy to create your own input box. This is a very simple implementation.

C Sharp Input Box

Let's say you have a form where you want your form to collect a person's name by throwing open an input box. Add a new form to your project called InputBox and add a textBox control, an OK button, and a Cancel button. Set the following form properties:
ControlBox = false
FormBorderStyle = FixedToolWindow
AcceptButton = your OK button
CancelButton = your Cancel button

Open the code file and wire it up like so...

               12 public
            partial class 
                InputBox : Form

               13     {

               14        
            // the InputBox

               15        
            private static 
                InputBox newInputBox;

               16        
            // the string that will be returned to the calling form

               17        
            private static 
                string returnString;

               18 

               19        
            public InputBox()

               20        
            {

               21        
                InitializeComponent();

               22        
            }

               23 

               24        
            public static 
                string Show(string inputBoxText)

               25        
            {

               26        
                newInputBox = new InputBox();

               27        
                newInputBox.Text = inputBoxText;

               28        
                newInputBox.ShowDialog();

               29        
                return returnString;

               30        
            }

               31 

               32        
            private void buttonOk_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

               33        
            {

               34        
                returnString = textBoxString.Text;

               35        
                newInputBox.Dispose();

               36        
            }

               37 

               38        
            private void buttonCancel_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

               39        
            {

               40        
                returnString = string.Empty;

               41        
                newInputBox.Dispose();

               42        
            }

               43 

               44        
            // only used to add a little color to the background

               45        
            private void InputBox_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)

               46        
            {

               47        
                Graphics g = e.Graphics;

               48        
                Rectangle rec = new
            Rectangle(0, 0, this.Width -
            1, this.Height - 1);

               49        
                LinearGradientBrush l = 
                new LinearGradientBrush(rec, Color.LightSteelBlue,
            Color.Snow, LinearGradientMode.Vertical);

               50        
                g.FillRectangle(l, rec);

               51        
            }

               52 

               53     }

Now go to the calling forms button click event and just add the following code: In this case, I'm adding the results from the InputBox to a label on my form.

               18  private
            void buttonName_Click(object sender,
            EventArgs e)

               19        
            {

               20        
                labelName.Text = InputBox.Show("Please
                enter your name");

               21        
            }