Text from form to form

[StrykerNet]

I'm working in Visual Studio 2008 in vb.net and I'm trying to make Form1 pass text in my labels to Form2. Can anyone help me? I can't figure it out.

[kevin21388]

If the forms are used in the same application, you can pass a reference to the second form when you create it, then use the reference to move the information from form to form.

[Curtis Rutland]

There are three ways to do this. All of them work similarly.

• Expose a public property. Add a public string to your form in the code and set it before you show the form.
• Expose a public method. Add a public Sub that accepts a string as a parameter and set a private member's value with it.
• Modify the form's constructor to accept a string. If you don't know what a constructor is, look up VB.NET Constructor. It's the Public Sub New() that you may or may not have. Add a string as a parameter, and change the way you instantiate the form.

Any one will work, I prefer to use the constructor, because of encapsulation.

[balabaster]

There are three ways to do this. All of them work similarly.

• Expose a public property. Add a public string to your form in the code and set it before you show the form.
• Expose a public method. Add a public Sub that accepts a string as a parameter and set a private member's value with it.
• Modify the form's constructor to accept a string. If you don't know what a constructor is, look up VB.NET Constructor. It's the Public Sub New() that you may or may not have. Add a string as a parameter, and change the way you instantiate the form.

Any one will work, I prefer to use the constructor, because of encapsulation.

A demonstration:

Public Partial Class Form2
  Inherits Form
 
  Public Property Item1() As String
    Get
      Return TextBox1.Text
    End Get
    Set (ByVal Value As String)
      TextBox1.Text = Value
    End Set
  End Public Property
 
  ''Or
  ''Only allow outside objects to read the property
  ''after it's been set using the SetValue method
  ''or passed in the constructor.
  'Public ReadOnly Property Item1() As String
  '  Get
  '    Return Textbox1.Text
  '  End Get
  'End Public Property
 
  'Doesn't allow you to GET the value out of the textbox though,
  'just put a value in...
  Public Sub SetValue(ByVal Value As String)
    TextBox1.Text = Value
  End Sub
 
  'Doesn't allow you to GET the value out of the textbox though,
  'just put a value in...
  Public Sub New (ByVal Value As String)
    TextBox1.Text = Value
  End Sub
 
End Class
 
Public Partial Class Form1
  Inherits Form
 
  Public Sub SomeMethodInMyForm()
 
    'If you didn't use the constructor in Form2...
    Dim oFrm2 As New Form2
    oFrm2.Item1 = "My New Value"
 
    'Else if you did use the constructor in Form2....
    Dim oFrm2 As New Form2("My New Value")
 
    'If we're just opening the form to display...
    Form2.Show()
 
    'Or if we want to use the form like a dialog box...
    'requires buttons defined on Form2 to pass back the
    'dialog results like vbOK and vbCancel etc...
    If Form2.ShowDialog() = vbOK Then
 
      MsgBox(Form2.Item1)
 
    End If
 
    'Do stuff...that relates to the data in Form2
 
    'Clean up Form2...
    Form2.Dispose()
 
  End Sub
 
End Sub
 

If you add this kind of idea into the form you wish to put data into and pull data out of the you can read and write to any of the objects on your form... the only way to put data in and get data out

[Curtis Rutland]

Thanks, I was too lazy to write up a VB.NET sample.

[balabaster]

Thanks, I was too lazy to write up a VB.NET sample.

's OK, I'm busy procrastinating on another portion of a project I'm trying to come up with a solution for, so I thought I'd exercise my mental muscles answering everyone else's questions... ;)