Visual studio provides a very rich tool box, useful to create nice UI, but what if we are in need create those controls at run time, sure we could , that's what I am going to demonstrate now.

Code behind the form

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace CreateUserInterfaceControlsAt_RunTime

{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{ buttonCount = 0;
int textBoxCount = 0;
int ty = 100;
int by = 100;

public Form()

{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
by+=40;
buttonCount++;
Button b = new Button();
b.Name = "MyButton" + buttonCount.ToString();
b.Text = "MyButton" + buttonCount.ToString(); ;
b.Size = new Size(100, 35);
Point p = new Point(20, by);
b.Location = p;
this.Controls.Add(b);
}
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ty += 20;
textBoxCount++;
TextBox tx = new TextBox();
tx.Name = "MyTextBox" + textBoxCount.ToString();
tx.Text = "MyTextBox" + textBoxCount.ToString(); ;
tx.Size = new Size(100, 35);
Point p = new Point(250, ty);
tx.Location = p;
this.Controls.Add(tx);
}
}
}

The UI

Image1.png

Let's explain the code, It is very simple :

  1. Create your instance of the wished control:

    Ex : Button b=new Button() ;
  2. Then give it it's property values: name, location..
  3. And the key is to add it to the form to be shown: this.Controls.Add(b)