Dynamically removing/adding controls on WinForm

Question

I want to remove and add a control at runtime on a WinForm. The problem is, that the Control must have the exact same size, location and anchors as another one.

If the user opens the window and a certain criteria is fulfilled, I want to delete the old control and replace it by another.

So, I tried this:

RichTextBox InsideText = new RichTextBox();
InsideText.Location = InsideBox.Location;
InsideText.Size = InsideBox.Size;

Controls.Remove(InsideBox);
Controls.Add(InsideText);

But, as expected, it didn't work. The InsideBox is not removed and the InsideText not added.

What am I doing wrong? Is there a better approach to this?

Answer 1

Note: The reason why I suggest an alternative approach instead of directly addressing the original question directly is because I don't see anything wrong with the code that the OP posted.

An alternative approach would be to create both controls in the Forms designer in exactly the same location and only switch their visibility when your criterion is fulfilled.

As was noted in a comment, there is indeed a drawback with this approach, namely that handling the form in the designer gets a little more difficult.

If this turns out to be a problem, you can still use the Designer towards another end: Use the above approach only for seeing what code is necessary to create the "new" control; then remove that code from InitializeComponent and move it to where the "old" control should be replaced by the new one. That way, you can be sure that the code for creating the new control will be correct.

Answer 2

I'd suggest that the easier way would be to add a panel in the correct location with the correct anchor etc set, and then you add control1 inside that panel set to full Dock and then you can just remove control1 and add control2 inside that panel instead and set it to Dock and all the size stuff etc is done by the one Panel instead of having to copy that around.