Question

I have a c# windows form app which contains several forms.

Generally, for example, in form1, I create a instance of form2 and then

form1.hide();
form2.show();

But sometimes I want the previous form to show and dispose current form. How can I call the previous form?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

To answer your question, you need to maintain references in your views to each other. While this might work it’s messy and error prone. It sounds like all your control logic is probably contained within your form class code and I would suggest moving away from that and separate your concerns.

Solving your form management issues becomes very simple if you create a controller class that, at a minimum, manages the creation and disposal of your forms in whatever way you see fit.

So your code sample would actually be launched from a controller class as something like:

public class FormsController
{
    private Form form1 = new Form();
    private Form form2 = new Form();

    public void SwitchForms()
    {
        form1.hide();
        form2.show();
    }
}

For further edification checkout the MVC architectural pattern for cleanly working with data, biz logic and UI.