Untabstoppify Readonly Textboxes

B. Clay Shannon

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28 Jan 2015CPOL

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Add a bit of code to a form to make all ReadOnly TextBoxes non-tabbable

You Can't Get Here From There

It makes no sense to me to have ReadOnly Textboxes that you can tab into - yet, you can. Here's some code you can add to your forms to prevent that:

foreach (Control control in this.Controls)
{
    var txtbx = control as TextBox;
    if (null != txtbx)
    {
        txtbx.TabStop = (!txtbx.ReadOnly);
    }
}

Now all Textboxes that are ReadOnly are non-tabstoppable, and vice versa: all non-ReadOnly Textboxes are TabStoppable.

This is not Your Father's Oldfangled Code

Or, a more concise/spiffy way of doing the same thing is the suggestion from Fred below:

foreach (var txtbx in Controls.OfType<textbox>())
{
    txtbx.TabStop = (!txtbx.ReadOnly);
}

Immer Besser, Was?

For a better approach to this (if you're going to put this sort of code on more than a couple of forms, or even more than one, depending on how worried you are about getting this snippet out of sync with that snippet), see prasy's answer here.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Written By

B. Clay Shannon

Founder Across Time & Space

United States

I am in the process of morphing from a software developer into a portrayer of Mark Twain. My monologue (or one-man play, entitled "The Adventures of Mark Twain: As Told By Himself" and set in 1896) features Twain giving an overview of his life up till then. The performance includes the relating of interesting experiences and humorous anecdotes from Twain's boyhood and youth, his time as a riverboat pilot, his wild and woolly adventures in the Territory of Nevada and California, and experiences as a writer and world traveler, including recollections of meetings with many of the famous and powerful of the 19th century - royalty, business magnates, fellow authors, as well as intimate glimpses into his home life (his parents, siblings, wife, and children).

Peripatetic and picaresque, I have lived in eight states; specifically, besides my native California (where I was born and where I now again reside) in chronological order: New York, Montana, Alaska, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Idaho, and Missouri.

I am also a writer of both fiction (for which I use a nom de plume, "Blackbird Crow Raven", as a nod to my Native American heritage - I am "½ Cowboy, ½ Indian") and nonfiction, including a two-volume social and cultural history of the U.S. which covers important events from 1620-2006: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/blackbirdcraven