how to access one form items on 2nd form

Hi all
since couple of month i have problem or i dnt know how to do that...suppose i have to forms.. form1.cs and form2.cs.

i have 1 datagrid which is showing order details on form 1. Using one button i am loading form2.cs as showmodal, on form2 is the data entery form for order details. when i click save button on form2, the whole record should go to datagrid of form1.cs, i dnt know how to access that datagrid from form2. This is just an example, plz guide me as i came across this problem many time in my project, so i have to make different way...but i need to find proper solution. As in VB6, i have to just take the name of form1 and using dot i get all the thing available on form2, how can i do that...plz guide
Thanks in advance.

There are several ways to do this. Basically, Form2 needs a reference to both Form1 and to its DataGridView.

Form1 can pass a reference to itself to Form2 when calling Form2's constructor.

Alternatively, Form1 can store a reference to itself in an internal static property which Form2 can then access.

With either of these approaches, you need to change the accessibility of the DataGridView from private to internal or create an internal method or property on Form1 which exposes a reference to the DGV which Form2 can then access.

However, an approach which requires no disruption to existing code is the following. I'm assuming that the DGV (named dataGridView1) is placed directly on Form1 rather than on some container such as a Panel or GroupBox:

Form1 f1 = (Form1)Application.OpenForms["Form1"]; // get ref to existing instance of Form1

DataGridView dgv = (DataGridView)f1.Controls["dataGridView1"]; // get ref to DGV

// do what you want with dgv

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Vulpes14y ago
There are several ways to do this. Basically, Form2 needs a reference to both Form1 and to its DataGridView.

Form1 can pass a reference to itself to Form2 when calling Form2's constructor.

Alternatively, Form1 can store a reference to itself in an internal static property which Form2 can then access.

With either of these approaches, you need to change the accessibility of the DataGridView from private to internal or create an internal method or property on Form1 which exposes a reference to the DGV which Form2 can then access.

However, an approach which requires no disruption to existing code is the following. I'm assuming that the DGV (named dataGridView1) is placed directly on Form1 rather than on some container such as a Panel or GroupBox:

Form1 f1 = (Form1)Application.OpenForms["Form1"]; // get ref to existing instance of Form1
DataGridView dgv = (DataGridView)f1.Controls["dataGridView1"]; // get ref to DGV
// do what you want with dgv
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