ContainerControl.AutoValidate Property

Definition

Namespace:

System.Windows.Forms

Assembly:

System.Windows.Forms.dll

Source:

ContainerControl.cs

Gets or sets a value that indicates whether controls in this container will be automatically validated when the focus changes.

C#

[System.ComponentModel.Browsable(false)]
public virtual System.Windows.Forms.AutoValidate AutoValidate { get; set; }

Property Value

AutoValidate

An AutoValidate enumerated value that indicates whether contained controls are implicitly validated on focus change. The default is Inherit.

Attributes

BrowsableAttribute

Exceptions

InvalidEnumArgumentException

An AutoValidate value that is not valid was used to set this property.

Examples

The following code example turns off implicit validation for a form and all of its contained controls, and instead manually performs validation of all of the form's children when a mouse button is clicked.

C#

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Text;

namespace TestValidation
{
    class Form1 : Form
    {
        private static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Application.EnableVisualStyles();
            Application.Run(new Form1());
        }

        private TextBox firstNameBox, lastNameBox;
        private Button validateButton;
        private FlowLayoutPanel flowLayout1;

        private Form1()
        {
            this.Load += new EventHandler(Form1_Load);
        }

        void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            // Turn off validation when a control loses focus. This will be inherited by child
            // controls on the form, enabling us to validate the entire form when the 
            // button is clicked instead of one control at a time.
            this.AutoValidate = AutoValidate.Disable;

            flowLayout1 = new FlowLayoutPanel();
            flowLayout1.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
            flowLayout1.Name = "flowLayout1";

            firstNameBox = new TextBox();
            firstNameBox.Name = "firstNameBox";
            firstNameBox.Size = new Size(75, firstNameBox.Size.Height);
            firstNameBox.CausesValidation = true;
            firstNameBox.Validating += new System.ComponentModel.CancelEventHandler(firstNameBox_Validating);
            flowLayout1.Controls.Add(firstNameBox);

            lastNameBox = new TextBox();
            lastNameBox.Name = "lastNameBox";
            lastNameBox.Size = new Size(75, lastNameBox.Size.Height);
            lastNameBox.CausesValidation = true;
            lastNameBox.Validating += new System.ComponentModel.CancelEventHandler(lastNameBox_Validating);
            flowLayout1.Controls.Add(lastNameBox);

            validateButton = new Button();
            validateButton.Text = "Validate";
            // validateButton.Location = new Point(170, 10);
            validateButton.Size = new Size(75, validateButton.Size.Height);
            validateButton.Click += new EventHandler(validateButton_Click);
            flowLayout1.Controls.Add(validateButton);

            this.Controls.Add(flowLayout1);

            this.Text = "Test Validation";
        }

        void firstNameBox_Validating(object sender, System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs e)
        {
            if (firstNameBox.Text.Length == 0)
            {
                e.Cancel = true;
            }
            else
            {
                e.Cancel = false;
            }
        }

        void lastNameBox_Validating(object sender, System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs e)
        {
            e.Cancel = false;
        }

        void validateButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (this.ValidateChildren())
            {
                MessageBox.Show("Validation succeeded!");
            }
            else
            {
                MessageBox.Show("Validation failed.");
            }
        }
    }
}

Remarks

The default value for AutoValidate will differ for each control. For more details on implicit validation, see User Input Validation in Windows Forms.

Setting this property to a new value will raise the AutoValidateChanged event.

Applies to

See also

• AutoValidate
• Validate
• AutoValidateChanged