Question

I’m trying to set the margin of a FlowPanel programmatically in C#, however it tells me that I can’t set it because it isn’t a variable.

Here it is telling me that the property gets or sets the space between controls.

But, once I try to set the property, it tells me that it isn’t a variable and the project won’t compile.

So, what is happening here? Is this property declared in a weird way behind the scenes? Is it a problem with Visual Studio? I’m at a loss.

Answer 1

You must assign a new value:

flowLayoutPanel2.margin = new Padding(5);

Update: Although there is no such remark for Padding there is an explaination for Point which also is a structure and why it need to be set as a new Padding (Point in the following description):

Point [Padding] is a structure, which means that it is a value type. If you
access a property in Point, a copy of the property is returned.
Therefore, changing the X or Y properties of the Point returned from
the Location property will not affect the Left, Right, Top, or Bottom
property values of the Form. To adjust these properties, set each
property value individually, or set the Location property with a new
Point.

Source:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159414.aspx

Public Structure Padding

Padding:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.padding.aspx