Control Identification

Introduction

Some controls are text-based, meaning they are meant to display or sometimes request text from the user. For such controls, this text is referred to as caption while it is simply called text for some other controls. This property is not available for all controls.

If a control displays text, then it has a property called Text. After adding such a control to a form, in some cases, its Text field in the Properties window would hold the same text as its name. In some other cases, the Text property would be empty.

At design time, to change the text of the control, in its Properties window, click its Text field and type the desired value. For most controls, there are no strict rules to follow for this text. Therefore, it is your responsibility to type the right value.

The text provided in a Text field of a text-based control can only be set “as is” at design time. To programmatically specify or change the text of a control, assign a value to its Text property.

If you want the text to change while the application is running, you can format it. For example, such a control can display the current time or the name of the user who is logged in. These format attributes cannot be set at design time. To change the text of a text-based control at run time, either assign a simple string or provide a formatted string to the Text property. Here is an example:

Imports System
Imports System.Windows.Forms

Module Exercise

    Public Class WinControls
        Inherits Form

        Private btnSubmit As Button

        Dim components As System.ComponentModel.Container

        Public Sub New()
            InitializeComponent()
        End Sub

        Public Sub InitializeComponent()
            btnSubmit = New Button()

            btnSubmit.Text = "Submit"

            Controls.Add(btnSubmit)
        End Sub

        Public Shared Function Main() As Integer

            Application.Run(New WinControls())
            Return 0

        End Function

    End Class

End Module