CreateControl Method [Access 2003 VBA Language Reference]

  • Article

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.

CreateControl(formname, controltype[, section[, parent[, columnname[, left[, top[, width[, height]]]]]]])

The CreateControl method has the following arguments.

Argument Description
formname A string expression identifying the name of the open form or report on which you want to create the control.
controltype One of the following intrinsic constants identifying the type of control you want to create. To view these constants and paste them into your code from the Object Browser, click Object Browser on the Visual Basic toolbar, then click Access in the Project/Library box, and click AcControlType in the Classes box.
Constant
acBoundObjectFrame
acCheckBox
acComboBox
acCommandButton
acCustomControl
acImage
acLabel
acLine
acListBox
acObjectFrame
acOptionButton
acOptionGroup
acPage
acPageBreak
acRectangle
acSubform
acTabCtl
acTextBox
acToggleButton
section One of the following intrinsic constants identifying the section that will contain the new control. To view these constants and paste them into your code from the Object Browser, click Object Browser on the Visual Basic toolbar, then click Access in the Project/Library box, and click AcSection in the Classes box.
Constant
acDetail
acHeader
acFooter
acPageHeader
acPageFooter
acGroupLevel1Header
acGroupLevel1Footer
acGroupLevel2Header
acGroupLevel2Footer
If a report has additional group levels, the header/footer pairs are numbered consecutively, beginning with 9.
parent A string expression identifying 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 The name of the field to which the control will be bound, if it is to be a data-bound control.
If you are creating a control that won't be bound to a field, use a zero-length string for this argument.
left, top Numeric expressions indicating the coordinates for the upper-left corner of the control in twips.
width, height Numeric expressions indicating the width and height of the control in twips.

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.

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.

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 = CreateControl(frm.Name, acTextBox, , "", "", _
        intDataX, intDataY)
    ' Create child label control for text box.
    Set ctlLabel = CreateControl(frm.Name, acLabel, , _
         ctlText.Name, "NewLabel", intLabelX, intLabelY)
    ' Restore form.
    DoCmd.Restore
End Sub

Applies to | Application Object

See Also | CreateReportControl Method