How do I fill an empty textbox with default text?

Question

How do I fill a textbox with text if it is empty? I am using VB.NET.

Answer 1

You will probably want to handle the TextChanged event and set some default text if the text box is empty when the event is fired.

I don't have a VB.NET example, but the following C# should be too hard to understand:

public Form1()
{
    this.InitializeComponent();

    textBox1.Tag = "Default text";
    textBox1.Text = (string)textBox1.Tag;
    textBox1.TextChanged += new EventHandler(OnTextChanged);
}

void OnTextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    var textbox = (TextBox)sender;

    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(textbox.Text))
    {
        textbox.Text = (string)textbox.Tag;
    }
}

And the event handler can be reused for several text boxes.

EDIT: Here's pretty much the same in VB.NET

Sub New()
    ' This call is required by the designer.
    InitializeComponent()

    TextBox1.Tag = "Default text"  ' This can be set with the designer
    TextBox1.Text = CStr(TextBox1.Tag)
End Sub

Private Sub OnTextBoxTextChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles TextBox1.TextChanged
    Dim textbox As TextBox = DirectCast(sender, TextBox)

    If String.IsNullOrEmpty(textbox.Text) Then
        textbox.Text = CStr(textbox.Tag)
        textbox.SelectAll()
    End If
End Sub

Of course, you can also achieve similar behavior using native Windows functionality, but a few lines of managed code will give you pretty much all you need even if you do not want to use Win32.