Creating forms Dynamically

[stealth1701]

Hi
Can anyone tell me if it is possible to create a form dynamically in .NET by passing a classname as a parameter

for example, image the following code works for a second

private Function NewForm(frmName as string) as Form
NewForm = CreateObject(frmName)
end Function

I would invoke it like this:
myForm = NewForm("Form2")

Now this won't work since CreateObject only works on COM objects - so, is there something equivalent I could do to create this form in the function if I only know the className.

Remember, I can't use the 'New' keyword as New expects you to supply an explicit classname (I only have the classname as a string parameter)

any help would be greatly appreciated
Cheers
Mat

[cim3]

Think your getting your knickers in a twist.
You can dynamically create a new form by doing
Dim MyForm as New Form
MyForm.Show

If you are passing a classname you wouldn't do it as a string. You could do the following.

Public Class MyForm
Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form

Public Sub New(ByVal sFormName As String)
Me.Name = sFormName
Me.Text = sFormName
End Sub

End Class


Dim FormTest As New MyForm("Hello")
FormTest.Show()

[stealth1701]

Chris
Don't think you understood my question. I know you can create a form by the method you described - thats basic stuff, but I need to take it a stage further. I have created a number of complex forms graphically and I want to display a particular form from within separate class.
Say I have two forms Form1 and Form2 created graphically with a load of controls on them.

Now I could write a class that contains a function thus

Function CreateForm (strFormClassType as string) as Form
if strFormClassType = "Form1" then
CreateForm = new Form1
elseif strFormClassType = "Form2" then
CreateForm = new Form2
endif
End Function

BUT, I don't want to have to hardcode all those forms in that CreateForm function (otherwise, everytime I add a new form i will need to add another if statement to this function)

See what I am getting at? Is there some way to have the new form created based on the strFormClassType string passed into the function???

[cim3]

Basically you need to create a custom forms collection (as forms does not exist in vb.net) The code can be found here
http://www.dotnet247.com/247referenc...21/107856.aspx

[stealth1701]

Thanks Chris
This was exactly what I was looking for. I was trying to implement my own forms colection which was why I needed to pass in a form class to retrieve from the collection.
This will do the same hing for me
Thanks again
Mat