Sams Teach Yourself C# in 24 Hours

By James Foxall and Wendy Haro-Chun

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Authors
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • Audience and Organization
  • Conventions Used in This Book
  • Onward and Upward!
  • Part I. The Visual Studio Environment
  • Hour 1. A C# Programming Tour
  • Hour 2. Navigating C#
  • Hour 3. Understanding Objects and Collections
  • Hour 4. Understanding Events
  • Part II. Building a User Interface
  • Hour 5. Building FormsPart I
  • Hour 6. Building FormsPart II
  • Hour 7. Working with the Traditional Controls
    • Displaying Static Text with the Label Control
    • Allowing Users to Enter Text Using a Text Box
    • Creating Buttons
    • Creating Containers and Groups of Option Buttons
    • Displaying a List with the List Box
    • Creating Drop-Down Lists Using the Combo Box
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • Hour 8. Advanced Controls
  • Hour 9. Adding Menus and Toolbars to Forms
  • Hour 10. Drawing and Printing
  • Part III. Making Things HappenProgramming!
  • Hour 11. Creating and Calling Methods
  • Hour 12. Using Constants, Data Types, Variables, and Arrays
  • Hour 13. Performing Arithmetic, String Manipulation, and Date/Time Adjustments
  • Hour 14. Making Decisions in C# Code
  • Hour 15. Looping for Efficiency
  • Hour 16. Debugging Your Code
  • Hour 17. Designing Objects Using Classes
  • Hour 18. Interacting with Users
  • Part IV. Working with Data
  • Hour 19. Performing File Operations
  • Hour 20. Controlling Other Applications Using Automation
  • Hour 21. Working with a Database
  • Part V. Deploying Solutions and Beyond
  • Hour 22. Deploying a Solution
  • Hour 23. Introduction to Web Development
  • Hour 24. The 10,000-Foot View
  • Appendix A. Answers to Quizzes/Exercises

Displaying Static Text with the Label Control

Label controls are used to display static text to the user. By static, I mean that the user can't change the text directly (but you can change the text with code). Label controls are one of the most common controls used; fortunately, they're also one of the easiest. Labels are most often used to provide descriptive text for other controls, such as text boxes. Labels are also great for providing status-type information to a user, as well as for providing general instructions on a form.

Begin by creating a new Windows Application named Traditional Controls. Change the name of the default form to fclsControls, and change its Text property to Traditional Controls Example. Next, change the Main entry point to use flcsControls.

Add a new Label control to the form by double-clicking the Label item in the toolbox. The primary property of the Label control is the Text property, which determines the text displayed to the user. When a Label control is first added to a form, the Text property is set to the name of control—this isn't very useful. Set the properties of the new Label control as follows:

Notice how the label's text appears on two lines (see Figure 7.1). This occurs because the text is forced to fit within the size of a new Label control. In most cases, it's best to place label text on a single line. To do this, you could increase the width either by using the Properties window or by dragging the edge of the control, but there is an easier way. Double-click the Label control's AutoSize property now and notice how the label resizes itself automatically to fit the text on a single line. Double-clicking a property that accepts a set number of values cycles the property to the next value. The AutoSize property of new Label controls is false by default, so double-clicking this property changed it to true.

Figure 7.1 Labels display static text.

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