Create buttons at runtime

[DotNetUser]

I want to allow the user to tell me how many rows and columns of buttons to draw. Then draw the buttons. When a button is clicked, it displays the row # and column # of that button in a msgbox.

I would create a button using the following code:
Button myText = new Button();
myText.Location = new Point(25,35);
myText.Text = "First";
this.Controls.Add (myText);

First of all, how would I create a click event if the button name isn't available until runtime? If a button is created in the design view, to get the click event one would double-click on the button.

Would I need a 2d array to store the column/row numbers to retrieve. But how would I know which button is clicked to retrieve the info?

Thanks.

[r0ckbaer]

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Collections;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Data;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

namespace WindowsApplication1
{
	/// <summary>
	/// Summary description for Form1.
	/// </summary>
	public class Form1 : System.Windows.Forms.Form
	{
		private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox textBox1;
		private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox textBox2;
		private System.Windows.Forms.Button button1;
		/// <summary>
		/// Required designer variable.
		/// </summary>
		private System.ComponentModel.Container components = null;

		public Form1()
		{
			//
			// Required for Windows Form Designer support
			//
			InitializeComponent();

			//
			// TODO: Add any constructor code after InitializeComponent call
			//
		}

		/// <summary>
		/// Clean up any resources being used.
		/// </summary>
		protected override void Dispose( bool disposing )
		{
			if( disposing )
			{
				if (components != null) 
				{
					components.Dispose();
				}
			}
			base.Dispose( disposing );
		}

		#region Windows Form Designer generated code
		/// <summary>
		/// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
		/// the contents of this method with the code editor.
		/// </summary>
		private void InitializeComponent()
		{
			this.textBox1 = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox();
			this.textBox2 = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox();
			this.button1 = new System.Windows.Forms.Button();
			this.SuspendLayout();
			// 
			// textBox1
			// 
			this.textBox1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(16, 16);
			this.textBox1.Name = "textBox1";
			this.textBox1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(48, 20);
			this.textBox1.TabIndex = 0;
			this.textBox1.Text = "textBox1";
			// 
			// textBox2
			// 
			this.textBox2.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(72, 16);
			this.textBox2.Name = "textBox2";
			this.textBox2.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(56, 20);
			this.textBox2.TabIndex = 1;
			this.textBox2.Text = "textBox2";
			// 
			// button1
			// 
			this.button1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(152, 16);
			this.button1.Name = "button1";
			this.button1.TabIndex = 2;
			this.button1.Text = "button1";
			this.button1.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.button1_Click);
			// 
			// Form1
			// 
			this.AutoScaleBaseSize = new System.Drawing.Size(5, 13);
			this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(240, 46);
			this.Controls.Add(this.button1);
			this.Controls.Add(this.textBox2);
			this.Controls.Add(this.textBox1);
			this.Name = "Form1";
			this.Text = "Form1";
			this.ResumeLayout(false);

		}
		#endregion

		/// <summary>
		/// The main entry point for the application.
		/// </summary>
		[STAThread]
		static void Main() 
		{
			Application.Run(new Form1());
		}

		private void button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
		{
			// This is the generate button routine
			int count = 0;
			System.Collections.ArrayList al = new ArrayList();
			foreach (Control c in this.Controls)
			{
				if (c.GetType() == typeof(Button) && c.Name != "button1")
				{
					al.Add(c);
				}
			}

			for (int i = 0; i < al.Count; i++)
				this.Controls.Remove((Control)al[i]);

			// Resize to start size
			this.Size = new Size(248, 80);

			// First one is columns
			int columns = Convert.ToInt32(textBox1.Text);
			int rows = Convert.ToInt32(textBox2.Text);
			int locX = 16, locY = 56;
			// We assume space between is 20
			for (int i = 0; i < columns * rows; i++)
			{
				Button b = new Button();
				b.Name = "b" + i.ToString();
				b.Size = new Size(10, 10);
				b.Location = new Point(locX, locY);
				if (((i + 1) % columns) == 0)
				{
					locX = 16;
					locY += b.Size.Height + 20;
				}
				else
				{
					locX += b.Size.Width + 20;
				}

				this.Controls.Add(b);
				b.Click +=new EventHandler(b_Click);

				if ((b.Location.X + b.Width) > this.ClientSize.Width)
				{
					this.Width += ((b.Location.X + b.Width) - this.ClientSize.Width) + 10;
				}
				if ((b.Location.Y + b.Height) > this.ClientSize.Height)
				{
					this.Height += ((b.Location.Y + b.Height) - this.ClientSize.Height) + 10;
				}
			}
		}

		private void b_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
		{
			string s =  ((Control)sender).Name;
			s = new Regex("\\d+").Match(s).Value;
			int num = Convert.ToInt32(s);
			int columns = Convert.ToInt32(textBox1.Text);
			int rows = Convert.ToInt32(textBox2.Text);
			s = string.Format("Column: {0}, Row: {1}", (num % columns) + 1, (num / columns) + 1);
			MessageBox.Show(this, s);
		}
	}
}

this is just a quick hack, but it might be what you're searching for...
to compile you can put that code in a file, call it Form1.cs
then compile it on commandline via: csc /target:winexe Form1.cs

[mazmoiz]

Hi, Have a look into this...

http://code-in-action.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-adddelete-controls-at-runtime.html

[LizR]

You can assign events at runtime easily, by

button1.Click+=new EventHandler(myClickFunction);

in fact you can find this by typing like button1.click = new and it prompts you :)

[vckicks]

This is something similar to what you are doing, working with dynamic controls.