Question

I’m attempting to create a custom dialog (using WinForms) that, much like a ColorDialog or OpenFileDialog, opens and accepts some input from the user, then returns execution to the parent form once input has been recieved.

I attempted to accomplish this by just creating a custom form that had a Show() method, then calling it like this:

custom_dialog.Show();
var results = custom_dialog.Property;

As you could imagine, this did not work as the second line was executed before any input was selected.

My question is: How can I create a custom dialog that will hang the execution of the parent form, as a ColorDialog or OpenFileDialog does, so that I can force the user to input something before execution continues?

Answer 1

you should call ShowDialog(), this will open the dialog as modal and you will continue execution in the calling form only after dialog has been closed.

It is a good practice to use the using block around the modal form so it gets disposed immediately once running out of such block.