CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netwinformswindows-forms-designer
Craig White
Craig White

Reputation: 14022

Delete control from form

I've currently got custom control that has somehow lost its parent and is now not parented to anything but it's still in the list of controls in the form designer. The delete button also doesn't work and is thus disabled. This happens every now and again and its a pain to go through the designer code and remove manually, plus there are other developers that this will annoy and may confuse them.

I'm therefore trying to add a Verb within the controls ComponentDesigner to delete itself from the form. But I realised that because its not 'childed' to anything, it therefore cant be removed as a child. How would I therefore go about deleting a control from the form designer via code?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 5744

Answers (3)

Craig White
Craig White

Reputation: 14022

I solved the issue by finding the loose controls within the Document Outline tab. This way is super easy and is graphical.

Upvotes: 0

Steve Wellens
Steve Wellens

Reputation: 20638

  1. Back up the file.

  2. Open up the designer file; e.g., Form1.Designer.cs

  3. Expand this region: Windows Form Designer generated code

  4. You should be able to find your control in the code and delete it. Be careful.

Upvotes: 0

Hans Passant
Hans Passant

Reputation: 942408

This can happen when one of your controls throws an exception at design time. That's rarely a silent event, the designer shows a popup message box. Not getting a message box may happen when you swallow exceptions in your code with a try/catch.

Trying to fix this by hacking a designer just adds to the problem. Fix it by editing the designer code, it is okay when you know what you're doing. If you can't find the reason then get it to a point where you can make it somewhat reproducible. Then start another instance of Visual Studio, Tools + Attach to Process and select the first instance. Debug + Exceptions, tick the Thrown box for CLR exceptions so the debugger will stop when the exception is thrown.

Upvotes: 2

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