Verify that 5 Textboxes have some content

Question

I'm new to C#. I have created a form that has 5 text boxes and this function checks to see if every text box has text in the box. If not, then it displays a message box saying "Error (Add Text)".

I wanted to see if there was a way to simplify this, or if this is the best way of completing this task :)

 private bool ValidInput()
 {
 bool isValid = true;
 //Check Title
 if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(titleText.Text))
 {
 //Message Box Pass Through Title
 MB("The Title can't be blank!", "Error!", MessageBoxIcon.Error);
 titleText.Focus();
 isValid = false;
 }
 //Check Artist
 else if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(artistText.Text))
 {
 //Message Box Pass Through Artist
 MB("The Artist can't be blank!", "Error!", MessageBoxIcon.Error);
 artistText.Focus();
 isValid = false;
 }
 //Check Genre
 else if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(genreText.Text))
 {
 //Message Box Pass Through Genre
 MB("The Genre can't be blank!", "Error!", MessageBoxIcon.Error);
 genreText.Focus();
 isValid = false;
 }
 //Check Year
 else if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(yearText.Text))
 {
 //Message Box Pass Through Year
 MB("The Year can't be blank!", "Error!", MessageBoxIcon.Error);
 yearText.Focus();
 isValid = false;
 }
 //Check URL
 else if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(urlText.Text))
 {
 //Message Box Pass Through URl
 MB("The URL can't be blank!", "Error!", MessageBoxIcon.Error);
 urlText.Focus();
 isValid = false;
 }
 return isValid;
 }

Answer 1

We are looking for answers that provide insightful observations about the code in the question. Answers that consist of independent solutions with no justification do not constitute a code review, and may be removed.

Try something like this:

private bool ValidInput()
{
 bool isValid = true;
 List<string[]> controlList = new List<string[]>(); //Control name, then display name.
 controlList.Add(new[] { "titleText", "Title"});
 controlList.Add(new[] { "artistText", "Artist" });
 controlList.Add(new[] { "genreText", "Genre" });
 controlList.Add(new[] { "yearText", "Year" });
 controlList.Add(new[] { "urlText", "URL" });
 for (int i = 0; i < controlList.Count; i++)
 {
 if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(this.Controls[controlList[i][0]].Text))
 {
 MB("The " + controlList[i][1] + " can't be blank!", "Error!", MessageBoxIcon.Error);
 this.Controls[controlList[i][0]].Focus();
 isValid = false;
 break;
 }
 }
 return isValid;
}

• Toby Speight: You have presented an alternative solution, but haven't reviewed the code. Please edit to show what aspects of the question code prompted you to write this version, and in what ways it's an improvement over the original. It may be worth (re-)reading How to Answer.
• Ablac: This one works amazingly! Because it allows for more then just TextBox's so if I change one of the box's to a ComboBox it still works :D Thank you!

Answer 2

you can use Dictionary to store the TextBoxs and their representive name, then just iterate over them, something like this :

private bool ValidInput()
{
 Dictionary<string, TextBox> textBoxes = new Dictionary<string, TextBox>
 {
 { "Title", titleText },
 { "Artist", artistText },
 { "Genre", genreText },
 { "Year" , yearText},
 { "URL", urlText }
 };
 foreach(var item in textBoxes)
 {
 var name = item.Key;
 var textbox = item.Value;
 if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(textbox.Text))
 {
 MB($"The {name} can't be blank!", "Error!", MessageBoxIcon.Error);
 textbox.Focus();
 return false;
 }
 }
 return true;
}

Answer 3

Each Control does have a property called Tag. This can contain/hold any kind of information since its type is object.

1. Assign the Title, ... ,Url values to the corresponding TextBox's Tag:

private readonly TextBox[] textBoxes = new [] { titleText, ... , urlText };
public Form1()
{
 InitializeComponent();
 titleText.Tag = "Title";
 ...
 urlText.Tag = "URL";
}

2. Rewrite your ValidInput like this:

var textbox = textBoxes.FirstOrDefault(tb => string.IsNullOrEmpty(tb.Text));
if (textbox == null) return true;
MB($"The {textbox.Tag} can't be blank!", "Error!", MessageBoxIcon.Error);
textbox.Focus();
return false;

Answer 4

.net already provides a mechanism to validate TextBoxes and other controls. It's called the Validating event. This works in combination with the ErrorProvider that allows you to easly show an error message.

By wiring and handling this event you don't need any dictionaries, loops, arrays and alike.