Button Control

One of the most popular control in Visual Basic is the Button Control (previously Command Control). They are the controls which we click and release to perform some action. Buttons are used mostly for handling events in code, say, for sending data entered in the form to the database and so on. The default event of the Button is the Click event and the Button class is based on the ButtonBase class which is based on the Control class.

Button Event

The default event of the Button is the Click event. When a Button is clicked it responds with the Click Event. The Click event of Button looks like this in code:

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As_ System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click 'You place the code here to perform action when Button is clicked End Sub

Working with Buttons

Well, it's time to work with Buttons. Drag a Button from the toolbox onto the Form. The default text on the Button is Button1. Click on Button1 and select it's properties by pressing F4 on the keyboard or by selecting
View->Properties Window from the main menu. That displays the Properties for Button1.

Important Properties of Button1 from Properties Window:

Appearance

Appearance section of the properties window allows us to make changes to the appearance of the Button. With the help of BackColor and Background Image properties we can set a background color and a background image to the button. We set the font color and font style for the text that appears on button with ForeColor and the Font property. We change the appearance style of the button with the FlatStyle property. We can change the text that appears on button with the Text property and with the TextAlign property we can set where on the button the text should appear from a predefined set of options.

Behavior

Notable Behavior properties of the Button are the Enabled and Visible properties. The Enabled property is set to True by default which makes the button enabled and setting it's property to False makes the button Disabled. With the Visible property we can make the Button Visible or Invisible. The default value is set to True and to make the button Invisible set it's property to False.

Layout

Layout properties are about the look of the Button. Note the Dock property here. A control can be docked to one edge of its parent container or can be docked to all edges and fill the parent container. The default value is set to none. If you want to dock the control towards the left, right, top, bottom and center you can do that by selecting from the button like image this property displays. With the Location property you can change the location of the button. With the Size property you can set the size of the button. Apart from the Dock property you can set it's size and location by moving and stretching the Button on the form itself.

Below is the image of a Button.

Creating a Button in Code

Below is the code to create a button.

Public Class Form1 Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e_ As System.EventArgs) Handles_ MyBase.Load Dim Button1 as New Button() 'declaring the button, Button1 Button1.Text="Creating a Button" 'setting the text to be displayed on the Button Button1.Location=New Point(100,50) 'setting the location for the Button where it should be created Button1.Size=New Size(75,23) 'setting the size of the Button Me.Controls.Add(Button1) 'adding the Button that is created to the form 'the Me keyword is used to refer to the current object, in this case the Form End Sub End Class