General Control Functions

The functions can commands outlined here are for communicating with and initializing various control types. See the individual sections on each control for other possible operations and commands.

SETCONTROLCOLOR window|dialog, ID, fg, bg

Changes the foreground and background colors of a control in a window or dialog. When used with controls in a dialog use SETCONTROLCOLOR in response to the @IDINITDIALOG message. The foreground color is used by text displayed in the controls. These colors can be specified using the RGB function.

SETCONTROLTEXT window | dialog, ID, text

SETCONTROLTEXT is used to change the text of a control. If the control is a bitmap button or bitmap static control then the text is the path to a bitmap file.

text$ = GETCONTROLTEXT (window | dialog, ID)

GETCONTROLTEXT is used to retrieve the text of a control. GETCONTROLTEXT and  SETCONTROLTEXT will work with single and multi-line edit controls to get/set the typed text. For any other control the caption is get/set. GETCONTROLTEXT returns the result as a string.

return = CONTROLEXISTS (window | dialog, ID)

Returns 1 if the specified control exists in the dialog or window. Returns 0 if the control could not be found. Useful for controls that are dynamically created based on user options.

SETSCROLLRANGE window | dialog, ID, min, max

SETSCROLLRANGE Sets the minimum and maximum range of a scrollbar control to min and max. All values returned by the scrollbar will be between min and max.  If ID = -1 then sets the range of the windows horizontal scrollbar. If ID = -2 then sets the range of the windows vertical scrollbar. ID must be a scrollbar control.

GETSCROLLRANGE window | dialog, ID, varMin, varMax

Stores the scrollbars range into the variables specified by varMin and varMax. The variables must be of type INT. If ID = -1 then stores the range of the windows horizontal scrollbar. If ID = -2 then stores the range of the windows vertical scrollbar. ID must be a scrollbar control. :

SETSCROLLPOS window | dialog, ID, position

Sets the slider position of a scrollbar. If ID = -1 then sets the scroll position of the windows horizontal scrollbar. If ID = -2 then sets the scroll position of the windows vertical scrollbar. Any other ID value is a user-defined scrollbar. Position must be between the minimum and maximum values set by the SETSCROLLRANGE statement.

position = GETSCROLLPOS (window | dialog, ID)

Returns the slider position of a scrollbar. If ID = -1 then returns the scroll position of the windows horizontal scrollbar. If ID = -2 then returns the scroll position of the windows vertical scrollbar. Any other ID value is a user-defined scrollbar.

position = GETTHUMBPOS(window | dialog, ID)

Returns the current thumb track position of a scrollbar. If ID = -1 then returns the thumb track position of the windows horizontal scrollbar. If ID = -2 then returns the thumb track position of the windows vertical scrollbar. Any other ID value is a user-defined scrollbar.

SETSELECTED window | dialog, ID, position

Sets the currently selected item in a list or combo box control. The position value is zero-based and the list or combo box must contain a string at that position.

index = GETSELECTED (window | dialog, ID)

Returns the zero-based index of the currently selected item in the list box of a combo or single selection list box. Returns -1 if no item is selected. ID must be a list box or combo box.

selected = ISSELECTED (window | dialog, ID, position)

Returns TRUE if the string at position is selected in a multi-selection list or combo box.

count = GETSTRINGCOUNT (window | dialog, ID)

Returns the number of strings in a list box or combo box control.

text$ = GETSTRING (window | dialog, ID, position)

Returns the string at position in a list box or combobox. Position is a zero based index.

ADDSTRING window | dialog, ID, string

Adds a string to a list box or combo box control.   String is added to the end of the list unless sorting is specified in the style of the control.

INSERTSTRING window | dialog, ID, position, text

Inserts a string into a combo or listbox control at position.  All other strings are moved down by one position.

DELETESTRING window | dialog, ID, position

Removes a string from a list box or combo box control. Remaining strings are moved up to fill the empty position.:

SETLBCOLWIDTH window | dialog, ID, width

Sets the width of columns in a multi-column list box. The list box must have been created with the style @CTLISTMULTI either in the CONTROL statement or by selecting the multicolumn checkbox in the dialog editor.

SETHORIZEXTENT window | dialog, ID, width

Sets the horizontal scroll width of a list box or list box portion of a combo box. Control must have been created with the @HSCROLL style. The width is specified in pixels.

SETSTATE window | dialog, ID, state

Sets or resets a checkbox or radio button control. State can either be 0 to uncheck the control or 1 to check the control.

state = GETSTATE (window | dialog, ID)

Returns the state of a checkbox or radio button control. Returns 1 if control is checked and 0 if control is unchecked. Radio buttons in a group are mutually exclusive. When a radio button is selected your program will receive an @IDCONTROL message with @CONTROLID containing the newly selected radio button. If the radio button is created outside of a group, you will need to use GETSTATE to determine whether the button is selected.

ENABLECONTROL window | dialog, ID, 0 | 1

The ENABLECONTROL function enables or disables a control in a window or dialog. Controls that are disables are grayed out and cannot be selected. Use 0 to disable the control or 1 to enable. Example: ENABLECONTROL mydialog, 2, 0

SETFOCUS window | dialog {,ID}

Activates the window, dialog or control and sets the input focus.

{return = } SENDMESSAGE ( window | dialog | hwnd, msg, wparam, lparam {,ID} )

Sends a message to the window, dialog or control if ID is specified. msg and wparam are numeric values. lparam can be a numeric value, string, pointer or memory variable depending on the message being sent.

See the sample file dirselector.eba for a complete example of using SENDMESSAGE

{return =} CONTROLCMD( window | dialog, ID ,command, {,param1...} )

Used to communicate with edit, rich edit, list view, status window and toolbar controls. See the sections on using those controls for more details.