adding text to multiline textbox without erasing previous contents

[StevenA]

how do i add text to a multiline textbox without erasing what is already in there?

Lets say the textbox already has...

"Visual basic is "

and then i want to add the word "fun" to the textbox without erasing "Visual basic is "

after adding "fun" i want it to read....
"Visual basic is fun"

any ideas?

[techgnome]

well... think of your text box as a variable... if you have "Visual Basic 6 is " in a variable and you want to concatenate text to it, how would you go about doing that?

-tg

[Lucien Montierre]

I had a similar problem while trying to add text in my Text Adventure game...
What I did was, whenever I want the game to add something new to the textbox without reasing the old thing I'd put:

textbox1.text = textbox1.text + " fun"

Hope this is what you were looking for.

[.paul.]

textbox1.text &= "new text"

to put "new text" on a new line:

textbox1.text &= environment.newline & "new text"

[EntityX]

I wasn't familiar with &= I would have coded it like

textbox1.Text = textbox1.Text & "new text"

I see that & and + are interchangeable. So you could code it

textbox1.text &= "new text" ' Or
textbox1.text += "new text" ' And
textbox1.text = textbox1.Text & "new text" ' is the same thing as
textbox1.text = textbox1.Text + "new text"

At least they're the same as far as I can see but maybe there's some behavioral difference under certain circumstances. I noticed that you can also put + and & in the same equation without a problem which makes sense since they do the same thing.

textbox1.text += "new text" & " some other text" + " and still more text"

[.paul.]

+ is also used for addition. so with option strict off these 2 strings:

"10" & "10" = "1010"
"10" + "10" = 20

[jmcilhinney]

If you want to append text to a TextBox then call the AppendText method of that TextBox.

[VBConfusesMe]

HOOORAY!

I got it to work using TextBox2.Text &= Environment.NewLine & "entered my stuff here"

Thanks all for the help and ideas.

[dunfiddlin]

Yippee. Now do it the proper way using the AppendText method like jmc told you to!!!! I can't believe the number of people, including some very advanced coders, who seem to be completely ignorant of this method!

[techgnome]

considering that james' posting was almost exactly two years ago... I'm not surprised... people often just find the first thing that works and stop reading.

-tg

[.paul.]

Yippee. Now do it the proper way using the AppendText method like jmc told you to!!!! I can't believe the number of people, including some very advanced coders, who seem to be completely ignorant of this method!

there are often several ways to skin a cat, + in this case both are proficient uses of the language.

[jmcilhinney]

there are often several ways to skin a cat, + in this case both are proficient uses of the language.

They don't produce quite the same behaviour though and, generally speaking, the behaviour of AppendText is more desirable. I wouldn't call setting the Text property wrong though.