Question

Rather new to C# so please forgive me if i am missing something simple or am trying to just do this the wrong way.

I am creating another form to compliment my main form and it needs to pull some of the information from Main form on button click of Second form. The information on the Main for is stored in checkboxes and textboxes.

I have the textboxes working fine but cannot figure out how to pull the checkboxes tag data over along with the formatting. Main Form is working fine as is except I cannot figure out how to bring the checkbox data over as well.

This is the code i currently use to display the checkbox TAG data on my main form.

 //Statements to write checkboxes to stringbuilder
string checkBoxesLine = "\u2022 LIGHTS ";

foreach (Control control in pnlCheckBoxes.Controls)
{
    if (control is CheckBox)
    {
        CheckBox checkBox = (CheckBox)control;

        if (checkBox.Checked && checkBox.Tag is string)
        {
            string checkBoxId = (string)checkBox.Tag;
            checkBoxesLine += string.Format("{0}, ", checkBoxId);
        }
    }
}

This is the button i am using to open the new form and move the checkbox tag data and textbox.text data to the new form.

private void code_blue_link_LinkClicked(object sender, LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs e)
{
    trouble_shooting = tshooting_text.Text;
    services_offered = services_offered_text.Text;
    other_notes = other_notes_text.Text;
    cust_modem = cust_modem_text.Text;
    //Opens CODE BLUE form and pushes text to it.
    code_blue_form CBForm = new code_blue_form();
    CBForm.cust_name_cb = cust_name_text.Text;
    CBForm.cust_cbr_cb = cust_callback_text.Text;
    CBForm.cust_wtn_cb = cust_btn_text.Text;
    CBForm.cust_notes_cb = cust_modem + "\r\n" + trouble_shooting + "\r\n" + services_offered + "\r\n" + other_notes;

    CBForm.Show();
}

Here is my code for the Second form and how i am getting the information to populate textboxes on that form.

public partial class code_blue_form : Form
{
    public string cust_name_cb;
    public string cust_wtn_cb;
    public string cust_cbr_cb;
    public string cust_notes_cb;
    public string cust_modem_cb;
    public code_blue_form()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        cb_name_text.Text = cust_name_cb;
        cb_wtn_text.Text = cust_wtn_cb;
        cb_cbr_text.Text = cust_cbr_cb;
        cb_notes_text.Text = cust_notes_cb;
    }
  }
}

Please forgive the long post! Any ideas/direction on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

I am not going to answer straight away using ur code. I find code smell. If I were you I would do this (but then if you are adamant about going with the same design, then you can tweak my code accordingly, no big deal, the bottom line is you get the idea how to do):

void code_blue_link_LinkClicked(object sender, LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs e)
{
    var checkBoxIds = GetCheckBoxIds();

    cust_modem = cust_modem_text.Text;
    trouble_shooting = tshooting_text.Text;
    services_offered = services_offered_text.Text;
    other_notes = other_notes_text.Text;

    //take off underscore convetion and replace with camelCase convention.
    CodeBlueForm cbForm = new CodeBlueForm(checkBoxIds, cust_name_text.Text, 
                                           cust_callback_text.Text, 
                                           cust_btn_text.Text,
                                           cust_modem + "\r\n" + 
                                           trouble_shooting + "\r\n" + 
                                           services_offered + "\r\n" + 
                                           other_notes);

    cbForm.Show();
}

private List<int> GetCheckBoxIds()//even better naming required like GetFruitIds() 
{                                 //(whatever the id is of) or even better Tag  
                                  //checkBoxes with the Fruit object iself and not ids.
    List<int> checkBoxIds = new List<int>(); //So you can call GetFruits();
    foreach (Control control in pnlCheckBoxes.Controls)
    {
        if (control is CheckBox)
        {
            CheckBox checkBox = (CheckBox)control;

            if (checkBox.Checked && checkBox.Tag is int) //tag them as ints. 
                checkBoxIds.Add((int)checkBox.Tag);      //I hope ids are integers.
        }
    }

    return checkBoxIds;
}

public partial class CodeBlueForm : Form
{
    List<int> checkBoxIds = new List<int>():
    string cust_cbr_cb; //should be private.
    string cust_name_cb;
    string cust_wtn_cb;
    string cust_notes_cb;
    string cust_modem_cb;

    public CodeBlueForm(List<int> ids, string cust_name_cb, string cust_wtn_cb, 
                        string cust_notes_cb, string cust_modem_cb)
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        this.checkBoxIds = ids;
        this.cust_name_cb = cust_name_cb;
        this.cust_wtn_cb = cust_wtn_cb;
        this.cust_notes_cb = cust_notes_cb;
        this.cust_modem_cb = cust_modem_cb;
    }

    private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        cb_name_text.Text = cust_name_cb; 
        cb_wtn_text.Text = cust_wtn_cb;
        cb_cbr_text.Text = cust_cbr_cb;
        cb_notes_text.Text = cust_notes_cb;

        string checkBoxesLine = "\u2022 LIGHTS ";        
        // if you dont require a lot of string formatting, then just:
        checkBoxesLine += string.Join(", ", checkBoxIds);

        // or go with your classical:
        //foreach (int id in checkBoxIds)
        //    checkBoxesLine += string.Format("{0}, ", checkBoxIds);

        //and do what u want with checkboxline here.
    }
}