Button component affecting the parent Panel in Delphi

Question

I'm writing a program consisting of dynamically created panels that each have a few components in, including a delete and add panel buttons. Each panel displays 20 pixels times the panel number below each other, OnClick for add must add another panel to the end of the set and OnClick for delete must destroy its parent and then move all the other panels up into the space that delete makes. The method I already tried involved using an array but unfortunately I got EAccessViolation when looping through an array where I deleted an object in the middle of it.

Sorry if this is obvious or its been answered before but I just started teaching myself OO earlier this week so I dont know all the terminologies or if there is a class liek an array that will do these things for me.

Answer 1

You may be better off doing this through careful use of the Align property.

If I have three panels with alignments as indicated here:

|-----------------------|
|                       |
|        alTop          |
|                       |
|-----------------------|

|-----------------------|
|                       |
|        alTop          |
|                       |
|-----------------------|

|-----------------------|
|                       |
|        alTop          |
|                       |
|-----------------------|

And I delete the second one, then the third one will automatically pop into it's place.

Just place all three panels inside another parent control (i.e., another panel) to define what "top" means when we say "alTop".

If you want to animate the effect, then you'll have to be slightly fancier. Is that your goal? If so, I'm sure we can come up with something.

Edit - I wrote some code that may give you some ideas:

unit Main;

interface

uses
  Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Variants, Classes, Graphics, Controls, Forms,
  Dialogs, StdCtrls, Buttons, ExtCtrls;

type
  TWhere = (wAtBeginning, wAtEnd);

type
  TfrmMain = class(TForm)
    panCtrl: TPanel;
    panHost: TPanel;
    btnAddPan: TBitBtn;
    btnDelPan: TBitBtn;
    lbAddWhere: TListBox;
    lbDelWhere: TListBox;
    procedure btnAddPanClick(Sender: TObject);
    procedure FormShow(Sender: TObject);
    procedure btnDelPanClick(Sender: TObject);
  private
    function GetPanel(HostPanel: TPanel; Where: TWhere): TPanel;
    function BottomOfLastPanel(HostPanel: TPanel): integer;
    procedure AddPanel(HostPanel: TPanel; AddWhere: TWhere);
    procedure DelPanel(HostPanel: TPanel; DelWhere: TWhere);
    procedure DelThisPanel(Sender: TObject);
  end;

var
  frmMain: TfrmMain;

implementation

{$R *.dfm}

procedure TfrmMain.AddPanel(HostPanel: TPanel; AddWhere: TWhere);
var
  pnl: TPanel;
  btn: TBitBtn;
begin
  pnl := TPanel.Create(HostPanel);
  with pnl do begin
    case AddWhere of
      wAtBeginning: Top := 0;
      wAtEnd: Top := BottomOfLastPanel(HostPanel);
    end;
    Align := alTop;
    Parent := HostPanel;
    Caption := DateTimeToStr(Now);
  end;

  btn := TBitBtn.Create(pnl);
  with btn do begin
    Parent := pnl;
    Left := 0;
    Top := 0;
    Width := 100;
    Height := 30;
    Align := alLeft;
    Caption := 'Delete this panel';
    OnClick := DelThisPanel;
  end;
end;

function TfrmMain.BottomOfLastPanel(HostPanel: TPanel): integer;
begin
  //scan through all panels contained inside the host panel
  //return the bottom of the lowest one (highest "top" value)
  Result := 0;
  if Assigned(GetPanel(HostPanel,wAtEnd)) then begin
    Result := GetPanel(HostPanel,wAtEnd).Top + GetPanel(HostPanel,wAtEnd).Height;
  end;
end;

procedure TfrmMain.btnAddPanClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
  case lbAddWhere.ItemIndex of
    0: AddPanel(panHost,wAtBeginning);
    1: AddPanel(panHost,wAtEnd);
  end;
end;

procedure TfrmMain.btnDelPanClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
  case lbDelWhere.ItemIndex of
    0: DelPanel(panHost,wAtBeginning);
    1: DelPanel(panHost,wAtEnd);
  end;
end;

procedure TfrmMain.DelPanel(HostPanel: TPanel; DelWhere: TWhere);
var
  pnlToDelete: TPanel;
begin
  case DelWhere of
    wAtBeginning: pnlToDelete := GetPanel(HostPanel,wAtBeginning);
    wAtEnd: pnlToDelete := GetPanel(HostPanel,wAtEnd);
  end;
  if Assigned(pnlToDelete) then begin
    FreeAndNil(pnlToDelete);
  end;
end;

procedure TfrmMain.DelThisPanel(Sender: TObject);
var
  parentPnl: TPanel;
begin
  //delete the parent panel of this button
  if Sender is TBitBtn then begin
    if (Sender as TBitBtn).Parent is TPanel then begin
      parentPnl := (Sender as TBitBtn).Parent as TPanel;
      parentPnl.Parent := nil;
      FreeAndNil(parentPnl);
    end;
  end;
end;

procedure TfrmMain.FormShow(Sender: TObject);
begin
  lbAddWhere.ItemIndex := 1;
  lbDelWhere.ItemIndex := 1;
end;

function TfrmMain.GetPanel(HostPanel: TPanel; Where: TWhere): TPanel;
var
  i: integer;
begin
  Result := nil;
  for i := 0 to panHost.ControlCount - 1 do begin
    if panHost.Controls[i] is TPanel then begin
      Result := (panHost.Controls[i] as TPanel);
      if Where = wAtBeginning then begin
        Break;
      end;
    end;
  end;
end;

end.

And here is the code for the DFM:

object frmMain: TfrmMain
  Left = 0
  Top = 0
  Caption = 'Add / Delete Panel Demo'
  ClientHeight = 520
  ClientWidth = 637
  Color = clBtnFace
  Font.Charset = DEFAULT_CHARSET
  Font.Color = clWindowText
  Font.Height = -11
  Font.Name = 'Tahoma'
  Font.Style = []
  OldCreateOrder = False
  OnShow = FormShow
  PixelsPerInch = 96
  TextHeight = 13
  object panCtrl: TPanel
    Left = 0
    Top = 0
    Width = 305
    Height = 520
    Align = alLeft
    TabOrder = 0
    object btnAddPan: TBitBtn
      Left = 8
      Top = 8
      Width = 125
      Height = 75
      Caption = 'Add panel'
      TabOrder = 0
      OnClick = btnAddPanClick
    end
    object btnDelPan: TBitBtn
      Left = 8
      Top = 89
      Width = 125
      Height = 75
      Caption = 'Remove panel'
      TabOrder = 1
      OnClick = btnDelPanClick
    end
    object lbAddWhere: TListBox
      Left = 139
      Top = 8
      Width = 150
      Height = 75
      Font.Charset = DEFAULT_CHARSET
      Font.Color = clWindowText
      Font.Height = -13
      Font.Name = 'Tahoma'
      Font.Style = []
      ItemHeight = 16
      Items.Strings = (
        'Add to the top'
        'Add to the bottom')
      ParentFont = False
      TabOrder = 2
    end
    object lbDelWhere: TListBox
      Left = 139
      Top = 89
      Width = 150
      Height = 75
      Font.Charset = DEFAULT_CHARSET
      Font.Color = clWindowText
      Font.Height = -13
      Font.Name = 'Tahoma'
      Font.Style = []
      ItemHeight = 16
      Items.Strings = (
        'Delete from the top'
        'Delete from the bottom')
      ParentFont = False
      TabOrder = 3
    end
  end
  object panHost: TPanel
    Left = 305
    Top = 0
    Width = 332
    Height = 520
    Align = alClient
    TabOrder = 1
    ExplicitLeft = 392
    ExplicitTop = 264
    ExplicitWidth = 185
    ExplicitHeight = 41
  end
end

Answer 2

You can use your array strategy if you use an dynamic array and actually delete the elements as you remove panels. Alternatively, you can always check to see whether the element is assigned with if Assigned(Array[I]).

However, you'd be much better off replacing your array solution with a solution using TComponentList which will make it easier to add and delete panels to the list and is designed for just this type of situation.