Left Property

Specifies the distance between the left edge of a control or form and its container object. Available at design time and run time.

Object.Left[ = nDist]

Property Values

• nDist
  Specifies the distance between the left edge of an object or form and the left edge of its container object.

  The default container for a form is the main Visual FoxPro window.

Remarks

The Left property specifies how far from the object's zero position the object is located. For example, if a form is contained within the Visual FoxPro main window, the zero position is immediately to the right of the main window's left border. If a toolbar is docked to the left of the main window, the zero position is immediately to the right of the toolbar. In Visual FoxPro for Macintosh, if the form is on the desktop (not contained within the Visual FoxPro main window), the zero position is the left edge of the screen.

Use Left, Top, Height, and Width properties for operations based on an object's external dimensions, such as moving or resizing. Use the ScaleMode property to change the unit of measurement.

Note   The Left property is read-only when it applies to a control contained in a Column object.

Example

The following example demonstrates how the Left property is used to position controls on a form. The AddObject method is used to add a Line control and three command buttons to a form, and the Left property specifies the horizontal placement of each control on the form.

frmMyForm = CREATEOBJECT('Form')  && Create a form
frmMyForm.Closable = .F.  && Disable the window pop-up menu
 
frmMyForm.AddObject('shpLine','Line')  && Add a Line control to the form
frmMyForm.AddObject('cmdCmndBtn1','cmdMyCmndBtn1')  && Up Cmnd button
frmMyForm.AddObject('cmdCmndBtn2','cmdMyCmndBtn2')  && Down Cmnd button
frmMyForm.AddObject('cmdCmndBtn3','cmdMyCmndBtn3')  && Quit Cmnd button

frmMyForm.shpLine.Visible = .T.  && Make Line control visible
frmMyForm.shpLine.Top = 20  && Specify Line control row
frmMyForm.shpLine.Left = 125  && Specify Line control column

frmMyForm.cmdCmndBtn1.Visible =.T.  && Up Command button visible
frmMyForm.cmdCmndBtn2.Visible =.T.  && Down" Command button visible
frmMyForm.cmdCmndBtn3.Visible =.T.  && Quit Command button visible

frmMyForm.SHOW  && Display the form
READ EVENTS  && Start event processing

DEFINE CLASS cmdMyCmndBtn1 AS COMMANDBUTTON  && Create Command button
   Caption = 'Slant \<Up'  && Caption on the Command button
   Left = 50  && Command button column
   Top = 100  && Command button row
   Height = 25  && Command button height
   
   PROCEDURE Click
      ThisForm.shpLine.Visible = .F.  && Hide the Line control
      ThisForm.shpLine.LineSlant ='/'  && Slant up
      ThisForm.shpLine.Visible = .T.  && Show the Line control
ENDDEFINE

DEFINE CLASS cmdMyCmndBtn2 AS CommandButton  && Create Command button
   Caption = 'Slant \<Down'  && Caption on the Command button
   Left = 200  && Command button column
   Top = 100  && Command button row
   Height = 25  && Command button height

   PROCEDURE Click
      ThisForm.shpLine.Visible = .F.  && Hide the Line control
      ThisForm.shpLine.LineSlant ='\'  && Slant down
      ThisForm.shpLine.Visible = .T.  && Show the Line control
ENDDEFINE

DEFINE CLASS cmdMyCmndBtn3 AS CommandButton  && Create Command button
   Caption = '\<Quit'  && Caption on the Command button
   Cancel = .T.  && Default Cancel Command button (Esc)
   Left = 125  && Command button column
   Top = 150  && Command button row
   Height = 25  && Command button height

   PROCEDURE Click
      CLEAR EVENTS  && Stop event processing, close form
ENDDEFINE

See Also

Height Property | Move Method | ScaleMode Property | Top Property | Width Property

Applies To: CheckBox | ComboBox | CommandButton | CommandGroup | Container Object | Control Object | Custom | EditBox | Form | Grid | Image | Label | Line | ListBox | OLE Bound Control | OLE Container Control | OptionButton | OptionGroup | PageFrame | _SCREEN | Shape | Spinner | TextBox | Timer | ToolBar