What the class does for you?
I've seen people often asking whether there is something in C++ like the
InputBox function in Visual Basic. I guess the easy way is to create your own
dialog class. But I thought an easier way would be to write a class that is not
dependent on a resource. CInputBox
can be used without having to create a dialog
resource. It allows you to set the title of the input-box, the prompt and also
the default text.
There are just two public functions in addition to the constructor, of
course. The constructor needs to be passed a CWnd*
. Mostly you can pass this
as
that parameter.
The main member function is ShowInputBox
which is declared as follows:
int ShowInputBox(CString,CString,CString);
The first CString
is the prompt to show. The second CString
is the title text
for the input-box and the third CString
is the default text. All three may be
null strings. Though I don't see that happening often for the first two
parameters.
Always, always call CloseBox
after you have shown the input-box. You
can only show the box once. If you want to show it again you MUST call CloseBox
and then start all over again from object-construction.
How to use the class?
- Now call
CloseBox
to avoid memory leaks
m_inputbox->CloseBox();
Some points that you should keep in mind
- You can only call
ShowInputBox
once per object-life-time. Means you simply
do it in three steps. Create the object, show the box, close the object. If
you need to show an input-box more than once, then for each time you need to
follow all three steps. - For some strange and as of now unknown reason, on one occasion, my sample program that
used this class didn't terminate and was left hanging in memory. I haven't
traced the problem yet. But please do let me know if you face a similar
problem
Conclusion
This is just version 1. I guess it needs a lot of enhancements like the
ability to call ShowInputBox
repeatedly and the ability to specify the size and
location of the window. I'll do that when I have time.
Nish Nishant is a technology enthusiast from Columbus, Ohio. He has over 20 years of software industry experience in various roles including Chief Technology Officer, Senior Solution Architect, Lead Software Architect, Principal Software Engineer, and Engineering/Architecture Team Leader. Nish is a 14-time recipient of the Microsoft Visual C++ MVP Award.
Nish authored C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications in 2005, and co-authored Extending MFC Applications with the .NET Framework for Addison Wesley in 2003. In addition, he has over 140 published technology articles on CodeProject.com and another 250+ blog articles on his WordPress blog. Nish is experienced in technology leadership, solution architecture, software architecture, cloud development (AWS and Azure), REST services, software engineering best practices, CI/CD, mentoring, and directing all stages of software development.
Nish's Technology Blog :
voidnish.wordpress.com