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CNumSpinCtrl - a simple numeric spin control

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4.90/5 (45 votes)
11 Jul 2002CPOL3 min read 200.7K   7.9K   49   33
Numeric spin control for working with real numbers

Introduction

When I needed a numeric spin control, I searched both CodeGuru and CodeProject. Surprisingly I only found one article by T. VU KHAC on CodeGuru, but as it turned out his CNumSpinCtrl could only be used in pair with CNumEdit which was too restrictive for my purposes. So I ended up writing my own numeric spin control.

CNumSpinCtrl allows you to work with non-integer numbers quite easily. It provides methods to set up value range, increment, and current position. It also lets you format the output value either by specifying number of decimal places or by providing your own formatting string.

Usage

Using the control is not much different from using CSpinButtonCtrl. You would subclass a dialog item or create the control dynamically. Then all you need to do is to set up range and position and, if necessary, the output formatting. Here’s an example from the demo project:

BOOL CCNumSpinCtrlDemoDlg::OnInitDialog()
{
        CDialog::OnInitDialog();
        
        m_spinValue.SetDecimalPlaces (3);
        m_spinValue.SetTrimTrailingZeros (FALSE);
        m_spinValue.SetRangeAndDelta (0.1, 1.0, 0.05);
        m_spinValue.SetPos (0.5);
...

There one thing to watch out however - style. Make sure you uncheck the "Set buddy integer" style or, if you are creating control dynamically, do not add UDS_SETBUDDYINT style. Otherwise the Windows automatically resets buddy's value to some integer when user clicks up/down arrows.

Formatting

There are two ways to format the output value: by specifying a number of decimal places or by providing a formatting string. With the first method you will specify number of decimal places with a call to SetDecimalPlaces function. Passing -1 to this function will turn off rounding to decimal places (the value will be output with "%g" format string). You can also specify whether you want to trim any trailing zeros with a call to SetTrimTrailingZeros. With a second method you simply provide your own formatting string, which later will be used with CString’s Format function. Example:

SetFormatString ("%.2e")

Remarks

Be sure to set appropriate formatting settings. If your formatting settings are inadequate for the current range and increment, the text in the buddy control may not change at all. For example, if you set the increment to be 0.005, but the number of decimal places only to 1, the value in buddy control will not change when a user clicks on up and down arrows. This is because the control does not keep the current value internally. The value is obtained from the buddy control before it is incremented or decremented. Then it is formatted and passed back to the buddy control. So the formatting settings are quite important.

Revisions

2002-07-03 Commented out ModifyStyle in InitControl - it didn't work, didn't remove UDS_SETBUDDYINT style. Put ASSERT instead. So now program will ASSERT if you forget to remove UDS_SETBUDDYINT style in resources.
Fixed wrapping. In some cases due to poor machine precision the wrapping condition didn't evaluate properly.
2002-06-05 Warren Stevens added wrapping ability. If the style of the spin control is set to "wrap", the value will wrap around if increased or decreased past the range limits.
2002-04-17 Fixed bug with trimming zeros. If number of decimal places was set to zero, it was still trimming zeros (e.g. 100 would become 1).
2001-08-24 Changed ON_NOTIFY_REFLECT to ON_NOTIFY_REFLECT_EX so that parent can also handle notification message from spin control. Thanks to Emmanuil Tsagarakis for this one.
2001-07-06 Original version.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


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Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralMy vote of 5 Pin
oleg6327-Jun-13 6:03
professionaloleg6327-Jun-13 6:03 
GeneralGreat Job! Pin
Paxmatic20-Jun-10 3:30
Paxmatic20-Jun-10 3:30 
GeneralConvert numbers to text Pin
Anonymous23-May-05 0:52
Anonymous23-May-05 0:52 
GeneralRe: Convert numbers to text Pin
ROCKISDEAD23-May-05 0:54
ROCKISDEAD23-May-05 0:54 
GeneralRe: Convert numbers to text Pin
Damir Valiulin24-May-05 4:51
Damir Valiulin24-May-05 4:51 
QuestionHow about a draggable spin control? Pin
eleroux27-Apr-05 8:30
eleroux27-Apr-05 8:30 
AnswerRe: How about a draggable spin control? Pin
Damir Valiulin24-May-05 5:23
Damir Valiulin24-May-05 5:23 
GeneralRe: How about a draggable spin control? Pin
eleroux24-May-05 6:44
eleroux24-May-05 6:44 
GeneralRe: How about a draggable spin control? Pin
gizmocuz19-Nov-06 9:24
gizmocuz19-Nov-06 9:24 
GeneralFixes when buddy control is manually edited Pin
Hard Hat12-Oct-03 1:27
Hard Hat12-Oct-03 1:27 
GeneralRe: Fixes when buddy control is manually edited Pin
Damir Valiulin14-Oct-03 8:38
Damir Valiulin14-Oct-03 8:38 
GeneralExcellent stuff.... Pin
adrian cooper9-Sep-03 5:40
adrian cooper9-Sep-03 5:40 
GeneralThe CNumSpinCtrl can't display on toolbar!!! Pin
ChinaThink28-Aug-03 16:14
ChinaThink28-Aug-03 16:14 
GeneralRe: The CNumSpinCtrl can't display on toolbar!!! Pin
Damir Valiulin2-Sep-03 4:10
Damir Valiulin2-Sep-03 4:10 
GeneralYou can do this with a regular CEdit and Spin control Pin
Roger Allen23-Aug-02 4:20
Roger Allen23-Aug-02 4:20 
GeneralRe: You can do this with a regular CEdit and Spin control Pin
Damir Valiulin23-Aug-02 4:31
Damir Valiulin23-Aug-02 4:31 
GeneralRe: You can do this with a regular CEdit and Spin control Pin
Roger Allen23-Aug-02 4:46
Roger Allen23-Aug-02 4:46 
GeneralNice Job! Pin
Jim Hawkins29-Jul-02 5:35
Jim Hawkins29-Jul-02 5:35 
GeneralIt can't work in dialog bar ! Pin
lijshuchina13-Jul-02 16:25
lijshuchina13-Jul-02 16:25 
GeneralRe: It can't work in dialog bar ! Pin
Damir Valiulin15-Jul-02 3:29
Damir Valiulin15-Jul-02 3:29 
Generalstack overflow software exception Pin
suma553-Jul-02 7:54
suma553-Jul-02 7:54 
GeneralSmall bug found -> correction Pin
13-Jun-02 9:29
suss13-Jun-02 9:29 
Hi!
First of all thanks for the nice control. It's just perfect.
There is one small bug however:
sometimes the control will, after modifying the values, set the real decimal value in the window. e.g. if I had 0.10 and pressed "up" I'd get 11.
I found that the problem was not in the derived control but was caused by a "stubbornness" Wink | ;) of the base control. I found, this can be prevented by returning a nonzero value via pResult in OnDeltapos(), thus Telling the base control it didn't change.
That fixed the problem for me.

I thought that might help some people out there...Regards,

Nick
GeneralRe: Small bug found -> correction Pin
3-Jul-02 8:31
suss3-Jul-02 8:31 
GeneralRe: Small bug found -> correction Pin
tattalevieuxgrincheux16-May-03 11:29
tattalevieuxgrincheux16-May-03 11:29 
GeneralRe: Small bug found -> correction Pin
tattalevieuxgrincheux16-May-03 11:30
tattalevieuxgrincheux16-May-03 11:30 

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