CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++winapitextbox
Edward Severinsen
Edward Severinsen

Reputation: 101

How to get text from a textbox in the Windows API

I've been scratching my head over this for a week now. I'm using the Windows API and I made a textbox with

editBox = CreateWindowEx(WS_EX_PALETTEWINDOW, TEXT("Edit"), NULL, WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_VSCROLL | WS_BORDER | ES_MULTILINE | ES_LEFT | ES_AUTOVSCROLL, 175, 110, 140, 150, hwnd, (HMENU) ID_TEXT, NULL, NULL);

and a button

button = CreateWindowEx(WS_EX_PALETTEWINDOW, "BUTTON", "Ok", WS_TABSTOP | WS_VISIBLE | WS_CHILD | BS_DEFPUSHBUTTON, 175, 260, 140, 20, hwnd, (HMENU) ID_BUTTON, NULL, NULL);

and I want to be able to click the button and it store what was typed into editBox in a primitive string. Examples are preffered but links and documentation are also very much appreciated! :)

Upvotes: 1

Views: 8515

Answers (1)

Cheers and hth. - Alf
Cheers and hth. - Alf

Reputation: 145419

You can use the GetWindowText API function to get the text of an edit control.

For a window with title this function retrieves the title. For an edit control it retrieves the edit control's text. Just ignore any documentation saying that you're limited to 64K or so, if you encounter it (it was once that way).

To detect the button click, process the WM_COMMAND window message in your window procedure; it's sent to the parent window of the button. There is a more sophisticated approach based on reflecting the message back to button, which can then process it itself, and that approach is used in most higher level frameworks. But at the API level, just check WM_COMMAND in the parent window's window procedure.

Upvotes: 3

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