Have Child, Got Parent, need Sibling

I use FindForm to get the Parent Object but the Object Members/Properties do not include access to the "public textBox1":

Code:

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void button_click(System::Object^ sender, System::EventArgs^ e){
        Control^ ctrl = safe_cast<Control^>(sender);
        Form^ myForm = ctrl->FindForm();
        MessageBox::Show(myForm->Name,"The Name"); // works
        myForm->textBox1->Text = gcnew String("Hello"); // does not work
}

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error C2039: 'textBox1' : is not a member of 'System::Windows::Forms::Form'

Yes, you can guess... I am trying to access it outside the class, which is why I do not simply use this->textBox1 - the call is made with:

this->Go->Click += gcnew System::EventHandler(button_click);

Any insights? Thanks.

I haven't used managed c++ so I don't know how much it differs from C#, but in C# you could use

Code:

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TextBox tb = (TextBox)myForm.Controls["textBox1"];

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by motocross1

Code:

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Form^ myForm = ctrl->FindForm();

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Instead of Form, you should be using whatever class your main form actually is. Form is just a base class, it has no such members...

Quote:

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TextBox tb = (TextBox)myForm.Controls["textBox1"];

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I not very good at converting C# to C++ I get an error with:
TextBox tb = safe_cast<TextBox^>(myForm->Controls["textBox1"]);
'System::Windows::Forms::TextBox' : class does not have a copy-constructor

Quote:

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Instead of Form, you should be using whatever class your main form actually is.

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I have tried directly accessing FormNamespace::Form1::textBox1 to no avail... can you give me an example of what you mean otherwise. And by the way, myForm->Name does give 'Form1'.

Actually I added a carat and it complied without errors:
TextBox^ tb = safe_cast<TextBox^>(myForm->Controls["textBox1"]);

But then crashed when I clicked the button with:
Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Quote:

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I have tried directly accessing FormNamespace::Form1::textBox1 to no avail... can you give me an example of what you mean otherwise. And by the way, myForm->Name does give 'Form1'.

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What brewbuck is saying is that instead of
Form^ myForm
you should use the class that is derived from Form.
By the sound of things I'm guessing you should use
Form1^ myForm = ctrl->FindForm();
or if FindForm() is a member function of Form1 I think you can just cast 'sender' to Form1 directly
Form1^ myForm = safe_cast<Form1^>(sender);

Quote:

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Actually I added a carat and it complied without errors:
TextBox^ tb = safe_cast<TextBox^>(myForm->Controls["textBox1"]);

But then crashed when I clicked the button with:
Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

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Are you checking that tb isn't NULL before trying to dereference it?

Tried this: ---------------------------------------------Pure-FYI-OK-to-Skip-It---------
Form1^ myForm = safe_cast<Form1^>(sender);

It complies, then crashes when button is clicked:
Unable to cast object of type 'System.Windows.Forms.Button' to type 'FormNamespace.Form1'

In case you didn't know... FindForm() is a .NET function: Control.FindForm Method (System.Windows.Forms)
I'm OK with using it to hook the parent form.

As for:-------------------------------------------------Please-Dont-Skip-This---------

Code:

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TextBox^ tb = safe_cast<TextBox^>(myForm->Controls["textBox1"]);
if(!tb){ MessageBox::Show("Not tb","Alert"); return; } // I added this

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Yep, when I click the button it says "Not tb"... but, since I have textBox1 inside splitContainer1, I tried:

Code:

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SplitContainer^ sc = safe_cast<SplitContainer^>(myForm->Controls["splitContainer1"]);
sc->SplitterDistance=200; // IT WORKS - YEAH!

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So, how can I hook textBox1 - I tried and failed with:

Code:

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TextBox^ tb = safe_cast<TextBox^>(sc->Controls["textBox1"]);
TextBox^ tb = safe_cast<TextBox^>(myForm->Controls["splitContainer1->textBox1"]);
TextBox^ tb = safe_cast<TextBox^>(myForm->Controls["splitContainer1::textBox1"]);

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Ideas?

What I meant was this...

Code:

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Form1^ myForm = safe_cast<Form1^>( ctrl->FindForm() );

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by motocross1

In case you didn't know... FindForm() is a .NET function: Control.FindForm Method (System.Windows.Forms)
I'm OK with using it to hook the parent form.

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Ah I see, thanks. I had never heard of it before so I thought it was a function you had written yourself :)

Quote:

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Ideas?

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You should have mentioned that the textbox was in a splitcontainer ;)

Code:

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System::Void button1_Click(System::Object^  sender, System::EventArgs^  e)
{
        Control^ ctrl = safe_cast<Control^>(sender);
        Form1^ myForm = safe_cast<Form1^>(ctrl->FindForm());
        TextBox^ tb = safe_cast<TextBox^>(myForm->splitContainer1->Panel2->Controls["textBox1"]);
        tb->Text = "It works!";
}

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I'm using a form layout of:

Code:

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Form1
  splitContainer1
    panel1
      button1
    panel2
      textbox1

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Adjust variable names to fit your project.

Awesome!!

Thanks Everyone

And, in case anyone is curious... Yes it is possible to take your Form functions out of the form.h and put them into a source.cpp --if you are using VC++ 2008 Express the final trick is to attach the events in the Form1_Load so that the designer doesn't grip about a parse error:

Code:

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private: System::Void Form1_Load(System::Object^ sender, System::EventArgs^ e){
                this->button->Click += gcnew System::EventHandler(button_click); // without "this," hence the VC++ grip
}

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Then just move the event functions to where ever.