Programatically Change the tab order Winforms

Question

Hi Geeks,

Don't know if i missed a minor property or method, or if its not possible at all, how do i programmatically re order the tabs in a tab control. i need to sort the tabs depending on some conditions.

if its possible to do the reordering through the designer i guess we must be able to do it thorugh code at runtime too??/

thanks,

Answer 1

You have to redefine your tab page collection, in order to change the index of your tab pages.

Answer 2

1. Create a new Form.
2. Create a new TabControl.
3. Notice it has two TabPage controls, and TabPage1 is the first tab.
4. In form's Load event, add
   • Me.TabControl1.TabPages.Remove(Me.TabPage2)
   • Me.TabControl1.TabPages.Insert(0, Me.TabPage2)
5. Run the form.
6. Notice TabPage2 is now the first tab.

Note that if you fail to remove the tab page, it will still show at its old location. In other words, you will have two tabs of the same tab page.

Answer 3

thelost is right. Below is a quick sample code.

I have a tab control with 2 tabs (tabpage1, tabpag2)

Then I declare two tabpages and store the existing tabs in the tabcontrol in it.

abPage tbp1 = new TabPage();
TabPage tbp2 = new TabPage();

tbp1 = tabControl1.TabPages[0];
tbp2 = tabControl1.TabPages[1];

Then on a button click I removed the tabs using

tabControl1.TabPages.Remove(tabControl1.TabPages[0]);

Now if you want to change the order then you will have top add it to the tab in that order

//Order changed    
tabControl1.TabPages.Add(tbp2);
tabControl1.TabPages.Add(tbp1);

Note: This is untested quick code.