ControlType Property
You can use the ControlType property in Visual Basic to determine the type of a control on a form or report. Read/write Byte.
expression.ControlType
expression Required. An expression that returns one of the objects in the Applies To list.
Setting
The ControlType property setting is an intrinsic constant that specifies the control type.
Constant | Control |
---|---|
acBoundObjectFrame | Bound object frame |
acCheckBox | Check box |
acComboBox | Combo box |
acCommandButton | Command button |
acCustomControl | ActiveX (custom) control |
acImage | Image |
acLabel | Label |
acLine | Line |
acListBox | List box |
acObjectFrame | Unbound object frame or chart |
acOptionButton | Option button |
acOptionGroup | Option group |
acPage | Page |
acPageBreak | Page break |
acRectangle | Rectangle |
acSubform | Subform/subreport |
acTabCtl | Tab |
acTextBox | Text box |
acToggleButton | Toggle button |
Remarks
The ControlType property is useful not only for checking for a specific control type in code, but also for changing the type of control to another type. For example, you can change a text box to a combo box by setting the ControlType property for the text box to acComboBox while in form Design view.
You can use the ControlType property to change characteristics of similar controls on a form according to certain conditions. For example, if you don't want users to edit existing data in text boxes, you can set the SpecialEffect property for all text boxes to Flat and set the form's AllowEdits property to No. (The SpecialEffect property doesn't affect whether data can be edited; it's used here to provide a visual cue that the control behavior has changed.)
The ControlType property is also used to specify the type of control to create when you are using the CreateControl method.
Example
The following example examines the ControlType property for
all controls on a form. For each label and text box control, the procedure
toggles the SpecialEffect property for those controls. When the label
controls' SpecialEffect property is set to Shadowed and the text box
controls' SpecialEffect property is set to Normal and the AllowAdditions,
AllowDeletions, and AllowEdits properties are all set to True,
the intCanEdit
variable is toggled to allow editing of the
underlying data.
Sub ToggleControl(frm As Form)
Dim ctl As Control
Dim intI As Integer, intCanEdit As Integer
Const conTransparent = 0
Const conWhite = 16777215
For Each ctl in frm.Controls
With ctl
Select Case .ControlType
Case acLabel
If .SpecialEffect = acEffectShadow Then
.SpecialEffect = acEffectNormal
.BorderStyle = conTransparent
intCanEdit = True
Else
.SpecialEffect = acEffectShadow
intCanEdit = False
End If
Case acTextBox
If .SpecialEffect = acEffectNormal Then
.SpecialEffect = acEffectSunken
.BackColor = conWhite
Else
.SpecialEffect = acEffectNormal
.BackColor = frm.Detail.BackColor
End If
End Select
End With
Next ctl
If intCanEdit = IFalse Then
With frm
.AllowAdditions = False
.AllowDeletions = False
.AllowEdits = False
End With
Else
With frm
.AllowAdditions = True
.AllowDeletions = True
.AllowEdits = True
End With
End If
End Sub