Dynamically creating controls based on variable

Question

First off I'm actually a DBA and not a web developer so... what I write will probably look ugly. I am building a website (they asked me if I'd try /shrug) and I have 168 checkboxes that have the same action when checked. But these actions, though the same, are performed on different controls (related to the checkbox). Instead of having a switch statement with 168 conditions can I do something like the following?

CheckBox myCB = (CheckBox)(sender);

String mySTR = myCB.ID.ToString();
String myGVstr = “gv” + mySTR.Substring(mySTR.IndexOf(‘cb’) + 1);
String myBTNstr = “btn” + mySTR.Substring(mySTR.IndexOf(‘cb’) + 1);

GridView myGV = myGVstr;
Button myBTN = myBTNstr;

// Do what I need to do with these controls
...

Kevin DiTraglia · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-09 20:35:21Z

1

This really doesn't seem like a plausible thing to do. Maybe on loading you can place all your controls into a large array? It would take 1 large section of code to place each control into the array but afterwards you can access them in a similar (more reliable) fashion.

If you insist on doing it this way the 'FindControl' method might be of some use.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/486wc64h.aspx

Something like...

GridView myGV = (GridView)FindControl(myGVstr)

Not tested, but might work.

edited May 9, 2012 at 20:35

answered May 9, 2012 at 20:26

Kevin DiTraglia

26.2k20 gold badges95 silver badges145 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

5 Comments

Servy Over a year ago

Could also consider a dictionary with the Checkbox (or checkbox ID) as the key.

Grixxly Over a year ago

Plausible or possible? Since I am writing it, I have used a very strict naming "standard" so I'm not to worried if you should do it this way or not.

Grixxly Over a year ago

I haven't been able to get it to work. I even hard-coded the GridView I'm trying to grab and myGV is still null. Tried changing the FindControl to (GridView)this.Page.FindControl("gvA1"); and still no dice... was hoping this would work, having to code the same 29 lines 168 times where only the control name changes stinks...

Grixxly Over a year ago

I've even tried the example from the link you provided and the example doesn't work LOL guess today is Monday part II

Grixxly Over a year ago

I figured it out. Thanks for you help! :)

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Dynamically creating controls based on variable

1 Answer 1

5 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

5 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related