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Introduction

Visual Basic 6.0 has anInputBox() function, Visual Basic .NET has one but in C# you don't. You can easily solve this by adding a reference to 'Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll' and using the static method 'Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction.InputBox()'.

See reference to MSDN 2001 in VB help.

Displays a prompt in a dialog box, waits for the user to input text or click a button, and returns a string containing the contents of the text box.

InputBox(prompt[,title] [,default] [,xpos] [,ypos] [,helpfile,context])

TheInputBox function syntax has these named arguments: see the help fileMSDN\2001OCT\1033.

In the VB 6.0, there were the title, default, xpos and ypos optional values to the call ofInputBox function. It is the same thing I have made.

But in this example we make ours own.

InputBox Class

TheInputBox class is a public class there arenot inherited fromSystem.Windows.Forms.Formclass. You use it by calling the static function name 'Show' like we also do inMessageBox. This method is returning a publicInputBoxResult. This object has two public properties one calledText with a string and aReturnCode.

There is anenum. It the same as theMessageBox returns, but theInputBox only returns these two parameters,DialogResult.OK orDialogResult.Cancel.

See the class header:

Usage

You activate theInputBox by calling the staticShow() method. It has one required and four optional arguments (using overloading).

Why there are so many new lines in the prompt argument is that, the old VB 6.0 made theInputBox form bigger after the size of the prompt argument.

privatevoid button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e){// This test that the InputBox can handle more newline than one.    InputBoxResult test = InputBox.Show("Prompt" +"\n" +"DDDD" +"Prompt" +"\n" +"DDDD" +"Prompt" +"\n" +"DDDD" +"Prompt" +"\n" +"DDDD" +"Prompt" +"\n" +"DDDD" +"Prompt" +"\n" +"DDDD"                  ,"Title","Default",100,0);if( test.ReturnCode == DialogResult.OK )        MessageBox.Show(test.Text);}

The best of all is that the drop down list there comes from theInputBox is very small. If we have inherited fromWindows.Form then it will have been bigger.

This is one of the methods in theInputBox class where we assign values to all the properties in the control. It regulates theInputBox size and the prompt textbox size based on the size of the prompt input string.

staticprivatevoid LoadForm(){    OutputResponse.ReturnCode = DialogResult.Ignore;    OutputResponse.Text =string.Empty;    txtInput.Text = _defaultValue;    lblPrompt.Text = _formPrompt;    frmInputDialog.Text = _formCaption;// Retrieve the working rectangle from the Screen class// using the PrimaryScreen and the WorkingArea properties.    System.Drawing.Rectangle workingRectangle =          Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea;if((_xPos >=0 && _xPos < workingRectangle.Width) &&          (_yPos >=0 && _yPos < workingRectangle.Height))    {        frmInputDialog.StartPosition = FormStartPosition.Manual;        frmInputDialog.Location =new System.Drawing.Point(_xPos, _yPos);    }else     {// InputBox in the center if not specifier or out of screen size        frmInputDialog.StartPosition =             FormStartPosition.CenterScreen;      }string PrompText = lblPrompt.Text;int n =0;int Index =0;// Counting the new line in the Prompt stringwhile(PrompText.IndexOf("\n",Index) > -1)                {        Index = PrompText.IndexOf("\n",Index)+1;        n++;    }if( n ==0 )        n =1;// Down here making the form bigger.    System.Drawing.Point Txt = txtInput.Location;     Txt.Y = Txt.Y + (n*4);    txtInput.Location = Txt;     System.Drawing.Size form = frmInputDialog.Size;     form.Height = form.Height + (n*4);    frmInputDialog.Size = form;     txtInput.SelectionStart =0;    txtInput.SelectionLength = txtInput.Text.Length;    txtInput.Focus();}

Conclusion

TheInputBox a simple static class which you can use in Windows Forms application to prompt for a text. It can also be used from Visual Basic .NET when you compile it in a library and refer this library from your VB project.

If we will make our ownMessageBox, then we have to make in the same way as we made theInputBox. Then we will support other languages with our ownMessageBox.

Have fun!

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