ContainedControls module

The ContainedControls object is a collection that exposes the controls placed inside an instance of a UserControl that has been set up as a control container. The author of the UserControl uses this collection to enumerate or inspect those constituent controls at run time. The author of the UserControl sees only what the consumer added — controls placed on the UserControl at design time by the author themselves are not part of this collection.

The collection is read-only: items cannot be added or removed through it, and the indexer returns existing controls only. To use it, the UserControl’s ControlContainer property must have been set to True at design time.

' Inside the UserControl that hosts other controls.
Private Sub UserControl_Resize()
    Dim ctl As Object
    For Each ctl In UserControl.ContainedControls
        ' Lay each consumer-placed control out within the UserControl.
    Next ctl
End Sub

Members

Count

Returns the number of controls in the collection.

Syntax: object.Count

object

required An object expression that evaluates to a ContainedControls object.

The value is a Long. Valid indexes for Item run from 1 to Count.

Item

Returns a single control from the collection by its one-based position.

Syntax: object.Item( index )

object

required An object expression that evaluates to a ContainedControls object.

index

required A Long giving the one-based position of the control to return. Must be between 1 and Count; otherwise an error occurs.

Item is the default member of ContainedControls, so the following lines are equivalent:

Set ctl = UserControl.ContainedControls.Item(1)
Set ctl = UserControl.ContainedControls(1)

The result is typed as Object because the consumer may have placed any kind of control inside the UserControl. Use TypeName or TypeOf to discover the concrete type before binding to a specific control’s properties.

For Each iteration

A ContainedControls object can be iterated with the For Each…Next statement, which yields each control in turn, in the order the consumer added them. The hidden _NewEnum member supplies the enumerator and is not called directly from user code.

Dim ctl As Object
For Each ctl In UserControl.ContainedControls
    Debug.Print TypeName(ctl)
Next ctl