ASP.NET declaring array of Controls in CodeBehind not working

Question

Hello
I need to group some Dropdown lists in ASP.NET form.So I wanted to create an array of DLs at the instance level as below in the code behind file.

DropDownList[] dls = { Dl1, Dl2, Dl3 };

where Dl1 etc are DropDown Lists on my form. So I get an error "A field initializer cannot reference a non static field method or property". However if I move the code inside a function it works OK. But I need to create it at instance level so multiple methods can use it.

Any Ideas about the best way to handle this.

Put it in the constructor.....

slugster
– slugster

2011-05-05 01:34:32 +00:00
Commented May 5, 2011 at 1:34 — slugster
– slugster, Commented May 5, 2011 at 1:34

Bala R · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-05 01:32:53Z

3

class MyPage : Page {

    DropDownList[] dls;

    protected void Page_Init(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        dls = new []{ Dl1, Dl2, Dl3 };
    }
    ...

}

edited May 5, 2011 at 1:32

answered May 5, 2011 at 1:25

Bala R

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4 Comments

John K Over a year ago

Yours is the long form syntax, but josephj1989's is the same thing.

John K Over a year ago

Your second version is an intermediately short syntax - the question author is using the shortest possible c# syntax. (Oops, fyi - this is in response to the deleted comment)

Bala R Over a year ago

@John ya I realized that. The other thing was that I didn't read the question fully. I have edited the answer now.

John K Over a year ago

+1 (voted changed) BTW, I prefer using the ASP.NET event handlers too, instead of ctor, for control-related stuff.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:03:20Z

0

This is the only way I could get it to work. Credit to slugster for the idea:

public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
    DropDownList[] dls = null;

    public _Default()
    { 
        dls = new DropDownList[] { dl1, dl2, dl3 };
    }

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {            
    }
}

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:03

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered May 5, 2011 at 1:44

ataddeini

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