Application.CreateControl Method

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Access Developer Reference

The CreateControl method creates a control on a specified open form. For example, suppose you are building a custom wizard that allows users to easily construct a particular form. You can use the CreateControl method in your wizard to add the appropriate controls to the form.

Syntax

expression.CreateControl(FormName, ControlType, Section, Parent, ColumnName, Left, Top, Width, Height)

expression   A variable that represents an Application object.

Parameters

Name Required/Optional Data Type Description
FormName Required String The name of the open form or report on which you want to create the control.
ControlType Required AcControlType An AcControlType constant that represents the type of control you want to create.
Section Optional AcSection An AcSection constant that identifying the section that will contain the new control.
Parent Optional Variant The name of the parent control of an attached control. For controls that have no parent control, use a zero-length string for this argument, or omit it.
ColumnName Optional Variant The name of the field to which the control will be bound, if it is to be a data-bound control.
Left,Top Optional Variant The coordinates for the upper-left corner of the control in twips.
Width, Height Optional Variant Numeric expressions indicating the width and height of the control in twips.

Return Value
Control

Remarks

You can use the CreateControl and CreateReportControl methods in a custom wizard to create controls on a form or report. Both methods return a Control object.

You can use the CreateControl and CreateReportControl methods only in form Design view or report Design view, respectively.

You use the parent argument to identify the relationship between a main control and a subordinate control. For example, if a text box has an attached label, the text box is the main (or parent) control and the label is the subordinate (or child) control. When you create the label control, set its parent argument to a string identifying the name of the parent control. When you create the text box, set its parent argument to a zero-length string.

You also set the parent argument when you create check boxes, option buttons, or toggle buttons. An option group is the parent control of any check boxes, option buttons, or toggle buttons that it contains. The only controls that can have a parent control are a label, check box, option button, or toggle button. All of these controls can also be created independently, without a parent control.

Set the columnname argument according to the type of control you are creating and whether or not it will be bound to a field in a table. The controls that may be bound to a field include the text box, list box, combo box, option group, and bound object frame. Additionally, the toggle button, option button, and check box controls may be bound to a field if they are not contained in an option group.

If you specify the name of a field for the columnname argument, you create a control that is bound to that field. All of the control's properties are then automatically set to the settings of any corresponding field properties. For example, the value of the control's ValidationRule property will be the same as the value of that property for the field.

Bb237827.vs_note(en-us,office.12).gif  Note
If your wizard creates controls on a new or existing form or report, it must first open the form or report in Design view.

To remove a control from a form or report, use the DeleteControl and DeleteReportControl statements.

Example

The following example first creates a new form based on an Orders table. It then uses the CreateControl method to create a text box control and an attached label control on the form.

Visual Basic for Applications 
  Sub NewControls()
    Dim frm As Form
    Dim ctlLabel As Control, ctlText As Control
    Dim intDataX As Integer, intDataY As Integer
    Dim intLabelX As Integer, intLabelY As Integer

' Create new form with Orders table as its record source.
Set frm = CreateForm
frm.RecordSource = "Orders"
' Set positioning values for new controls.
intLabelX = 100
intLabelY = 100
intDataX = 1000
intDataY = 100
' Create unbound default-size text box in detail section.
Set ctlText = <strong class="bterm">CreateControl(</strong>frm.Name, acTextBox, , "", "", _
    intDataX, intDataY)
' Create child label control for text box.
Set ctlLabel = <strong class="bterm">CreateControl(</strong>frm.Name, acLabel, , _
     ctlText.Name, "NewLabel", intLabelX, intLabelY)
' Restore form.
DoCmd.Restore



End Sub

See Also