Question

I am recently working on windows forms with visual C# and I have a bunch of radio buttons grouped together.

I needed to call some methods if the radio button is clicked and also do some validation.

So I have two methods,

public void doSomeStuff()

public bool valRadioButton1()

I can call doSomeStuff() in the click event and the latter in the validating event of the radiobutton but I could also just call both in either the click event or the validating event.

My question is that are there any advantages and disadvantages as to what event I would use to call these? Or is there any particular way is more efficient. Right now it seems that both events would do the exact same thing so why use one or another or both.

Answer 1

Radio buttons are kind of strange in combination with the conventional validation. The validating event seems to be designed to allow you to validate a value once when the user is done entering a value instead of every time the value changes as the user is entering it. This makes sense for a textbox where you want to look at the completed text instead of after each character that the user types. But it’s a little more obscure for radio buttons. In fact I think you should generally avoid the validating event of radio buttons and instead use the validating event of the container (radio buttons should always be in an embedded container). This allows a keyboard user to select/move through different options to arrive at the one they want without repeated validations as they move through the options. Then when they move focus out of the group box (or whatever container you used), you can validate the whole option group at once. This behavior is more consistent, then, with that of other controls’ validation. In fact I see very little purpose to using the validating event on individual radio buttons. The only reason I see is if you want to cancel the user’s new selection without causing extra click events. But be aware that when no radio button is selected and the user first clicks on one, no validating event will occur! No radio button lost focus and validating events only occur when a control loses focus. So this is why I think you should just avoid the validating event on radio buttons and just use the validating event of the container or the click event of a radio button.

Also, I think if you want to be nice to keyboard users, you should keep the validation logic separate from the click logic and use the events appropriately. Things like enabling controls based on which option is selected would belong in the click event of a radio button, but error and warning messages about the currently selected option should go in the validating event of the container.

Edit: You asked specifically about when one event occurs and not the other. I would add this information in response to that:

1. Validate will be called without calling click if the code is what causes the selected radio button to change, assuming focus then passes to the radio button (or container, if you are using the container’s validate event).
2. Click will be called without (or should I say before) calling validate if no radio button was selected and the user then clicks on one (validate only occurs when the control loses focus). Validate will eventually occur for the clicked option, though.
3. Click will be called without (or should I say before) calling validate if your validate handler is not linked to the specific option that was previously selected or its container. It will be called for the option that is now selected (and the container) when this option (or the container) loses focus, though.
4. Click could be called without validate being called if your code that looks at the value doesn’t require the selected option to lose focus before looking at it.