[RESOLVED] Quickest way to clear multiple textboxes

[MadLadDesigns]

I have around 500 text boxes in my app (yes, I do need them all [for now]). I'd like the user to be able to clear all text boxes in one go. I realise I can use textboxname.Clear() but I really don't want to have 500 individual lines to clear each text box. All text box names are unique. Any help would be appreciated.

[.paul.]

Are all of the textboxes in the same container control (form, panel, GroupBox, etc)?
Are these textboxes All of your textboxes, or are there some you don’t want to clear?

[.paul.]

You can loop through a collection of textboxes.
If for example, all of your textboxes are on a form, and there are no textboxes to skip…

For Each tb As TextBox in Me.Controls.OfType(Of TextBox)
    tb.Clear
Next

[MadLadDesigns]

Awesome thanks! I have a couple of tab controls, will that clear all boxes within those as well?

[.paul.]

TabControls are different. To start, you can only edit the controls on the selected TabPage. Each TabPage is a container control…
You can loop through the TextBoxes on TabPage1, like this…

For Each tb As TextBox in Me.TabPage1.Controls.OfType(Of TextBox)
    tb.Clear
Next

[jmcilhinney]

TabControls are different. To start, you can only edit the controls on the selected TabPage. Each TabPage is a container control…
You can loop through the TextBoxes on TabPage1, like this…

For Each tb As TextBox in Me.TabPage1.Controls.OfType(Of TextBox)
    tb.Clear
Next

If you want to do that on each TabPage in a TabControl, nest that within a loop over those TabPages:

For Each tp As TabPage In TabControl1.TabPages
    For Each tb In tp.Controls.OfType(Of TextBox)()

[MadLadDesigns]

I managed to get that all working (also had list boxes and rich text boxes to clear as well), so thank you both, much appreciated.

[MadLadDesigns]

How do I 'skip' text boxes I don't want clearing? I have the following that clears everything:

            For Each tp As TabPage In TabMain.TabPages
                ' Clear all the text boxes in the Adventure Setup tab
                For Each tb In tp.Controls.OfType(Of TextBox)()
                    tb.Clear()
                Next
                ' Clear all the Rich Text Boxes
                For Each tb In tp.Controls.OfType(Of RichTextBox)()
                    tb.Clear()
                Next
                ' Clear all the List Boxes
                For Each tb In tp.Controls.OfType(Of ListBox)()
                    tb.Items.Clear()
                Next
                ' Clear all the Combo Boxes
                For Each tb In tp.Controls.OfType(Of ComboBox)()
                    tb.Items.Clear()
                    tb.Text = ""
                Next
                ' Clear all the NumericUpDowns
                nudArea.Value = 1
            Next

[wes4dbt]

You can check the TextBox.Name property. If possible you could organize all the controls you want cleared/not cleared on a panel or groupbox.

[.paul.]

For Each tb In tp.Controls.OfType(Of TextBox).Except(New TextBox() {TextBox1, TextBox2})
‘ etc

[MadLadDesigns]

Well that was simple! Lol! Thanks .paul

[wes4dbt]

For Each tb In tp.Controls.OfType(Of TextBox).Except(New TextBox() {TextBox1, TextBox2})

Nice, I had never seen that method before.

[.paul.]

Nice, I had never seen that method before.

As a part of LINQ, it’s been around since 2008

[jmcilhinney]

One option to avoid hard-coding specific TextBoxes in your code like .paul. did is to use some special property of the TextBoxes. For instance, you might set the Tag property to "DoNotClear" in the designer for each TextBox you don't want to clear, then do this:

For Each tb In tp.Controls.OfType(Of TextBox).Where(Function(tb) tb.Tag.ToString() <> "DoNotClear")

[MadLadDesigns]

Thanks jmcilhinney.