CODEWITHSUNDEEP
.netwinformscontrols
Didier Levy
Didier Levy

Reputation: 3453

Add custom property to standard control

Being a bit lazy, I'd like to add some properties of mine to a control, WITHOUT the hassle of creating a custom control.

Say there is a Button control, I'd like to add a secondary Tag property to it.

Or a textbox I want an oldText property for it...

I do not need the added properties to show in the properties window. I just need to use them in code.

Any idea?

Please do NOT answer if telling me I HAVE to use custom control or derived class. I need the ease of use of standard controls from the toolbar.

On the other hand, something like Partial Class would do...

Upvotes: 2

Views: 4242

Answers (3)

Reddog
Reddog

Reputation: 15579

I think your best answer is the one that I think you're not allowing us to give - that is, use inheritance to create an inherited control.

However, you might be able to make a work-around using an IExtenderProvider implementation.

Upvotes: 1

Anthony Pegram
Anthony Pegram

Reputation: 126854

If you do not want to extend the class and you just want to reference the "properties" in code, you could consider building a Dictionary<T, V>, where T is the type of control, and V is the type you wish to map to the control. It could be a string or a custom type, in the case of wanting to have multiple properties mapped to the same control.

Maybe you have

class CustomPropertyBag
{
    public string OldText { get; set; }
    public string Tag { get; set; }
    // more
}

You could have Dictionary<TextBox, CustomPropertyBag> dictionary in your code, which would allow you to map your custom properties and textboxes together.

dictionary[textBox1].OldText = "whatever";

Upvotes: 2

Steven Jeuris
Steven Jeuris

Reputation: 19100

For WPF

Extend from Button and add the desired dependency properties. You don't have to create a custom user control from scratch.

You could also use attached properties to add additional functionality without using inheritance.

For winforms

My winforms is a little bit rusty, but I notice you can also simply extend from Button.

Upvotes: 3

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