Question

That’s it. It’s a dumb dumb (embarrassing!) question, but I’ve never used C# before, only C++ and I can’t seem to figure out how to access a Label on my main form from a secondary form and change the text. If anybody can let me know real quick what to do I’d be so grateful!

BTW, I should really clarify. Sorry: I’ve got two separate .cs files that each look about like below. I was using the [Designer] in VS2008 to add in the label in Form1. When I type something like Form1.label1 it doesn’t understand. The dropdown shows a list of methods and properties for Form1, but there’s only about 7, like ControlCollection, Equals, MouseButtons, and a couple others… I can publicly define a variable in Form1 and that shows, but I don’t know how to access the label…

namespace AnotherProgram {     public partial class Form1 : Form     {         public Form1()         {             InitializeComponent();         }     } } 

Answer 1

You’ll need a reference to the instance of Form1 – for example, if it’s Form1 which is constructing Form2, you might pass this in as a constructor parameter.

Then you’ll need to either expose the label of Form1 via a property (or – ick! – a non-private field) or write a method/property which will set the text of the label. For example:

public class Form1 : Form  {     private Label label;      // Construction etc as normal      public string LabelText     {          get { return label.Text; }          set { label.Text = value; }     }      public Form2 CreateForm2()     {         return new Form2(this);     } }  public class Form2 : Form {     private Form1 form1;      public Form2(Form1 form1)     {         this.form1 = form1;         // Normal construction     }      public void SayHello()     {         form1.LabelText = 'Hello';     } }