Question

A form has many buttons. One of those buttons contains code to update the TableAdapterManager. One of the many TextBox controls has code in a Validating event handler. There is code to make sure a US phone number is formatted properly.

If the user tabs out of the TextBox the Validating code works perfectly and show a message to the user if the phone number is not properly formatted and the focus is place in the offending TextBox.

If the user clicks on a button that has code to update the TableAdapterManager the Validating code fires but instead of focus remaining on the offending TextBox, the code in the button Click handler also fires.

I would like to stop the button code from firing.

Here is the code for the Validating event of the TextBox:

Private Sub TextBoxPrimaryPhone_Validating(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs) Handles TextBoxPrimaryPhone.Validating

    ' Make sure the phone is formatted correctly.
    '--------------------------------------------
    If PhoneFormat(TextBoxPrimaryPhone.Text) = "Fix Phone Number" Then

        ' Alert the user.
        '----------------
        MessageBox.Show("Please enter a 7 or 10 digit phone number.", _
                        "Entry Error", _
                        MessageBoxButtons.OK, _
                        MessageBoxIcon.Error)

        e.Cancel = True
    Else

        ' Format according to the length of the phone number entered by the user.
        '------------------------------------------------------------------------
        TextBoxPrimaryPhone.Text = PhoneFormat(TextBoxPrimaryPhone.Text)
    End If
End Sub

What additional coding to I need to include so focus remains on the TextBox?

Answer 1

After e.Cancel = True is called do this to set the focus of the offending textbox:

TextBoxPrimaryPhone.Focus()

In your button click event handler you can do this:

    TextBoxPrimaryPhone_Validating(sender, New System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs)

    If Not TextBoxPrimaryPhone.Focused Then

        'Do Work

    End If