How can I select all the text within a Windows Forms textbox?

Question

I want to select all the text that is with in text box.

I've tried this using the code below:

textBoxResults.SelectionStart = 0;
textBoxResults.SelectionLength = textBoxResults.Text.Length;

Source: I got this code from here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/hk09zy8f(v=vs.100).aspx but for some reason it doesn't seem to work - meaning, no text gets selected.

_(...)but it doesn't work.(...)_, what do you get in `selectedText` if you write `var selectedText = textBoxResults.SelectedText;`? Are you modifying the text property after the code above? — Alex Filipovici, Aug 05 '13 at 04:49
No, this is after programmatically populating the textbox. I just want to quickly highlight everything so I don't have to scroll through a gazillion lines of text. — B. Clay Shannon-B. Crow Raven, Aug 05 '13 at 05:10
What **doesn't work**? Is the text only partially selected? Or not selected at all? You have to provide more details about your problem. — Alex Filipovici, Aug 05 '13 at 05:25
And the same exact comment could be made regarding this question of mine: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18034016/why-is-one-of-my-select-dropdowns-disappearing-once-content-is-loaded-below-it — B. Clay Shannon-B. Crow Raven, Aug 05 '13 at 18:27
It was answered below by Ehsan Ullah, so he understood it, and it's working now - in addition to SelectAll(), I also had to call Focus() after that. IOW, it was selected (theoretically, at least), but how would I know that. Seems like a strange implementation to me, but, as I said, the question has been answered/solved. — B. Clay Shannon-B. Crow Raven, Aug 09 '13 at 15:03
I had the same issue until I set the HideSelection property for textbox to false.... — dmihailescu, Apr 03 '15 at 19:03

Ehsan · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-05T05:32:22.700

68

You can use the built in method for this purpose.

textBoxResults.SelectAll();
textBoxResults.Focus(); //you need to call this to show selection if it doesn't has focus

edited Aug 05 '13 at 05:32

answered Aug 05 '13 at 04:48

Ehsan

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That would seem sensible, but it doesn't work, either. I added textBoxResults.SelectAll(); – B. Clay Shannon-B. Crow Raven Aug 05 '13 at 05:17
i have tested it, it works eperfectly fine. Can you show how have you implemented it. it must be something else that is causing the issue. – Ehsan Aug 05 '13 at 05:26
It's very simple: I programmatically populate the textbox, then I have a button with that code in it. I tried what I posted, which didn't work, and I tried the SelectAll(), which also doesn't work. – B. Clay Shannon-B. Crow Raven Aug 05 '13 at 05:29
1

got your problem, call textBoxResults.Focus() after selectall call – Ehsan Aug 05 '13 at 05:31
@ClayShannon is your issue resolved? have you tried the updated code? – Ehsan Aug 05 '13 at 05:40
2

Or set the `HideSelection` property to `false`. – Cody Gray - on strike Aug 05 '13 at 06:29
Okay, with the added .Focus() it works, thanks. Strange that the official way to do it from msdn led me down the garden path. – B. Clay Shannon-B. Crow Raven Aug 05 '13 at 13:55
1

I always upvote every answer to one of my questions as soon as I see it - before I even read it. – B. Clay Shannon-B. Crow Raven Aug 05 '13 at 15:02
I typed the following code in the "Enter" event of a Textbox. When i click into the Textbox, text is not selected: `Textbox1.SelectAll(); Textbox1.Focus();` – Syed Irfan Ahmad Aug 11 '23 at 18:17

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 05 '13 at 04:53

3

You can also try the following which might solve you problem:

textBoxResults.SelectAll();

This works well with multi-lined textbox.

answered Aug 05 '13 at 04:53

Conrad Lotz

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score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 05 '13 at 05:01

2

This method enables you to select all text within the control.

public void CopyAllMyText()
{
// Determine if any text is selected in the TextBox control. 
if(textBox1.SelectionLength == 0)
   // Select all text in the text box.
   textBox1.SelectAll();

// Copy the contents of the control to the Clipboard.
textBox1.Copy();
}

Check this link for more info. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.textboxbase.selectall.aspx

answered Aug 05 '13 at 05:01

Ajay

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Why would I need to check for selectionlength? I want to select all with nothing selected prior to that. – B. Clay Shannon-B. Crow Raven Aug 05 '13 at 05:12
You can remove if condition. – Ajay Aug 05 '13 at 05:13

How can I select all the text within a Windows Forms textbox?

3 Answers3

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