Visual Basic 2008 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach

9.3. Process All the Controls on a Form

Problem

You need to perform a generic task with all the controls on the form. For example, you may need to retrieve or clear their Text property, change their color, or resize them.

Solution

Iterate recursively through the collection of controls. Interact with each control using the properties and methods of the base Control class.

How It Works

You can iterate through the controls on a form using the ControlCollection object obtained from the Controls property. The ControlCollection includes all the controls that are placed directly on the form surface. However, if any of these controls are container controls (such as GroupBox, Panel, or TabPage), they might contain more controls. Thus, it's necessary ...