how to make different panels with same conduct?

Question

Hello I'm making 10x10 cube with panels and the panels needs to change color when you click X times the panel but the code is so large, Is there another way for the code not to be so long?

This is my code:

int cont1 = 0, cont2 = 0, cont3 = 0, cont4 = 0, cont5 = 0, cont6 = 0, cont7 = 0, cont8 = 0, cont9 = 0, cont10 = 0;

then the event to change de color(All of my Panels have the same code but difference is "cont" and panel name):

 private void panel1_MouseClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
        {
            cont1++;
            if (cont1 <= 5)
            {
                panel1.BackColor = Color.SlateBlue;
            }
            if (cont1 >=5)
            {
                panel1.BackColor = Color.Cyan;
            } 
            if (cont1 >= 10)
            {
                panel1.BackColor = Color.Lime;
            }
            if (cont1 >= 15)
            {
                panel1.BackColor = Color.Yellow;
            }
            if (cont1 >= 20)
            {
                panel1.BackColor = Color.Red;
            } 
        }

//other panel 
private void panel2_MouseClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
        {
            cont2++;
            if (cont2 <= 5)
            {
                panel2.BackColor = Color.SlateBlue;
            }
            if (cont2 >= 5)
            {
                panel2.BackColor = Color.Cyan;
            }
            if (cont2 >= 10)
            {
                panel2.BackColor = Color.Lime;
            }
            if (cont2 >= 15)
            {
                panel2.BackColor = Color.Yellow;
            }
            if (cont2 >= 20)
            {
                panel2.BackColor = Color.Red;
            }
        }

note: Each panel changes its color, not all at the same time Actually work with 4x4 but 10x10 is large for me

Answer 1

You don't actually need to create large amount of variables because you need to keep track of control states. You can leverage the existence of control Tags and cut down the amount of code you write.

Be it 1000 x 1000 panels the below method would work flawlessly for your usecase. All you need do is point all target panel mouseClick to it and allow it handle the rest.

private void panel_MouseClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
    Control ctrl = sender as Control;

    //get previous value from control tag or start at 0
    int count = ctrl.Tag == null ? 0 : (int)ctrl.Tag;

    //set backcolor of control based on tag number             
    if (count >= 20) ctrl.BackColor = Color.Red;
    else if (count >= 15) ctrl.BackColor = Color.Yellow; 
    else if (count >= 10) ctrl.BackColor = Color.Lime;
    else if (count >= 5)  ctrl.BackColor = Color.Cyan;
    else ctrl.BackColor = Color.SlateBlue; 

   // if (count == xx)
    //{// you may want to reset count after a certain number. Do that here...}

    ctrl.Tag = ++count;
}

Answer 2

You could refactor this to use a method where you pass in the specific panel object and the current count value, rather than repeating the same logic over and over:

    private void panel1_MouseClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
    {
        cont1++;
        updateColour(panel1, cont1);
    }

    //other panel 
    private void panel2_MouseClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
    {
        cont2++;
        updateColour(panel2, cont2);
    }

    private void updateColour(Control ctrl, int count)
    {
        if (count >= 20)
        {
            ctrl.BackColor = Color.Red;
        }
        else if (count >= 15)
        {
            ctrl.BackColor = Color.Yellow;
        }
        else if (count >= 10)
        {
            ctrl.BackColor = Color.Lime;
        }
        else if (count >= 5)
        {
            ctrl.BackColor = Color.Cyan;
        }
        else
        {
            ctrl.BackColor = Color.SlateBlue;
        }
    }

Note 1: I also re-wrote the count-checking logic so that it didn't unnecessarily paint the panel (up to) 4 different colours, instead it will always paint it just once. (In your previous logic, if the count was 21, it would first set the panel to Cyan (because 21 >= 5), then Lime (because 21 is also >= 10), and so on until the last if).

Note 2: Since BackColor is actually a property of the parent Control class, you could use this updateColour function with any control, not just a Panel)

In general in your code, if you find yourself repeating the same basic logic more than once, that usually means it's time to turn that logic into a separate method which can then be re-used across your application.

There is likely to be more refactoring you can do here (e.g. putting the panels and related counts into a data structure which links them together, and then using only one "click" handler method for all the panels, and using the sender to determine which panel was clicked) - but my example should reduce quite a large amount of your repetition.