Making a WinForms TextBox behave like your browser s address bar

Question

When a C  WinForms textbox receives focus  I want it to behave like your browser s address bar   To see what I mean  click in your web browser s address bar  You ll notice the following behavior     Clicking in the textbox should select all the text if the textbox wasn t previously focused  Mouse down and drag in the textbox should select only the text I ve highlighted with the mouse  If the textbox is already focused  clicking does not select all text  Focusing the textbox programmatically or via keyboard tabbing should select all text    I want to do exactly this in WinForms   FASTEST GUN ALERT  please read the following before answering  Thanks guys   -      Calling  SelectAll   during   the  Enter or  GotFocus events won t   work because if the user clicked the   textbox  the caret will be placed   where he clicked  thus deselecting all   text       Calling  SelectAll   during the  Click event won t work because the user won t be able to select any text with the mouse  the  SelectAll   call will keep overwriting the user s text selection       Calling BeginInvoke  Action textbox SelectAll  on focus enter event enter doesn t work because it breaks rule  2 above  it will keep overriding the user s selection on focus

User · Answer

I called SelectAll inside MouseUp event and it worked fine for me       private bool  tailTextBoxFirstClick   false       private void textBox1 MouseUp object sender  MouseEventArgs e                if  textBoxFirstClick                         textBox1 SelectAll              textBoxFirstClick   false               private void textBox1 Leave object sender  EventArgs e                 textBoxFirstClick   true          textBox1 Select 0  0

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I ve found an even simpler solution   To make sure all text is selected when clicking on a textBox  make sure that the Click handler calls the Enter handler  No need for extra variables   Example   private void textBox1 Click object sender  EventArgs e           textBox1 Enter sender  e          private void textBox1 Enter object sender  EventArgs e           TextBox tb     TextBox sender           tb SelectAll

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First of all  thanks for answers  9 total answers  Thank you   Bad news  all of the answers had some quirks or didn t work quite right  or at all   I ve added a comment to each of your posts   Good news  I ve found a way to make it work  This solution is pretty straightforward and seems to work in all the scenarios  mousing down  selecting text  tabbing focus  etc    bool alreadyFocused        textBox1 GotFocus    textBox1 GotFocus  textBox1 MouseUp    textBox1 MouseUp  textBox1 Leave    textBox1 Leave        void textBox1 Leave object sender  EventArgs e        alreadyFocused   false      void textBox1 GotFocus object sender  EventArgs e           Select all text only if the mouse isn t down         This makes tabbing to the textbox give focus      if  MouseButtons    MouseButtons None                this textBox1 SelectAll            alreadyFocused   true           void textBox1 MouseUp object sender  MouseEventArgs e           Web browsers like Google Chrome select the text on mouse up         They only do it if the textbox isn t already focused         and if the user hasn t selected all text      if   alreadyFocused  amp  amp  this textBox1 SelectionLength    0                alreadyFocused   true          this textBox1 SelectAll              As far as I can tell  this causes a textbox to behave exactly like a web browser s address bar   Hopefully this helps the next guy who tries to solve this deceptively simple problem   Thanks again  guys  for all your answers that helped lead me towards the correct path

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private bool  isSelected   false  private void textBox Validated object sender  EventArgs e         isSelected   false     private void textBox MouseClick object sender  MouseEventArgs e        SelectAllText textBox      private void textBox Enter object sender  EventArgs e        SelectAllText textBox      private void SelectAllText TextBox text        if    isSelected                 isSelected   true          textBox SelectAll

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The answer can be actually quite more simple than ALL of the above  for example  in WPF    public void YourTextBox MouseEnter object sender  MouseEventArgs e                YourTextBox Focus            YourTextBox SelectAll            of course I can t know how you want to use this code  but the main part to look at here is  First call  Focus   and then call  SelectAll

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Interestingly  a ComboBox with DropDownStyle Simple has pretty much exactly the behaviour you are looking for  I think    If you reduce the height of the control to not show the list - and then by a couple of pixels more - there s no effective difference between the ComboBox and the TextBox

User · Answer

SelectAll never worked for me   This works   ActiveControl   textBox1  textBox1- gt SelectionStart   0  textBox1- gt SelectionLength   textBox1- gt Text- gt Length

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I find this work best  when mouse click and not release immediately       private bool SearchBoxInFocusAlready   false      private void SearchBox LostFocus object sender  RoutedEventArgs e                SearchBoxInFocusAlready   false             private void SearchBox PreviewMouseUp object sender  MouseButtonEventArgs e                if  e ButtonState    MouseButtonState Released  amp  amp  e ChangedButton    MouseButton Left  amp  amp              SearchBox SelectionLength    0  amp  amp  SearchBoxInFocusAlready    false                        SearchBox SelectAll                       SearchBoxInFocusAlready   true

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It s a bit kludgey  but in your click event  use SendKeys Send    HOME   END

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Inside the Enter event TextBox1 SelectAll      Ok  after trying it here is what you want    On the Enter event start a flag that states that you have been in the enter event On the Click event  if you set the flag  call  SelectAll   and reset the flag  On the MouseMove event  set the entered flag to false  which will allow you to click highlight without having to enter the textbox first    This selected all the text on entry  but allowed me to highlight part of the text afterwards  or allow you to highlight on the first click   By request       bool entered   false      private void textBox1 Enter object sender  EventArgs e                entered   true          textBox1 SelectAll        From Jakub s answer             private void textBox1 Click object sender  EventArgs e                if  entered  textBox1 SelectAll            entered   false             private void textBox1 MouseMove object sender  MouseEventArgs e                if  entered  entered   false          For me  the tabbing into the control selects all the text

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The following solution works for me  I added OnKeyDown and OnKeyUp event override to keep the TextBox text always selected       public class NumericTextBox   TextBox       private bool  focused      protected override void OnGotFocus EventArgs e                base OnGotFocus e           if  MouseButtons    MouseButtons None                        this SelectAll                 focused   true                      protected override void OnEnter EventArgs e                base OnEnter e           if  MouseButtons    MouseButtons None                        SelectAll                 focused   true                       protected override void OnLeave EventArgs e                base OnLeave e            focused   false             protected override void OnMouseUp MouseEventArgs mevent                base OnMouseUp mevent           if    focused                        if  SelectionLength    0                  SelectAll                 focused   true                       protected override void OnKeyUp KeyEventArgs e                base OnKeyUp e            if  SelectionLength    0              SelectAll             focused   true            protected override void OnKeyDown KeyEventArgs e               base OnKeyDown e          if  SelectionLength    0              SelectAll             focused   true

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Have you tried the solution suggested on the MSDN Forum  Windows Forms General  which simply subclasses TextBox

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This is similar to nzhenry s popular answer  but I find it easier to not have to subclass   Private LastFocused As Control   Nothing  Private Sub TextBox1 Enter sender As Object  e As System EventArgs  Handles TextBox1 Enter  TextBox2 Enter  TextBox3 Enter     If MouseButtons   Windows Forms MouseButtons None Then LastFocused   sender End Sub  Private Sub TextBox1 Leave sender As Object  e As System EventArgs  Handles TextBox1 Leave  TextBox2 Leave  TextBox3 Leave     LastFocused   Nothing End Sub  Private Sub TextBox1 MouseUp sender As Object  e As System Windows Forms MouseEventArgs  Handles TextBox1 MouseUp  TextBox2 MouseUp  TextBox3 MouseUp     With CType sender  TextBox          If LastFocused IsNot sender AndAlso  SelectionLength   0 Then  SelectAll       End With     LastFocused   sender End Sub

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Your solution is good  but fails in one specific case  If you give the TextBox focus by selecting a range of text instead of just clicking  the alreadyFocussed flag doesn t get set to true  so when you click in the TextBox a second time  all the text gets selected   Here is my version of the solution  I ve also put the code into a class which inherits TextBox  so the logic is nicely hidden away   public class MyTextBox   System Windows Forms TextBox       private bool  focused       protected override void OnEnter EventArgs e                base OnEnter e           if  MouseButtons    MouseButtons None                        SelectAll                 focused   true                       protected override void OnLeave EventArgs e                base OnLeave e            focused   false             protected override void OnMouseUp MouseEventArgs mevent                base OnMouseUp mevent           if    focused                        if  SelectionLength    0                  SelectAll                 focused   true

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Why don t you simply use the MouseDown-Event of the text box  It works fine for me and doesn t need an additional boolean  Very clean and simple  eg    private void textbox MouseDown object sender  MouseEventArgs e        if  textbox    null  amp  amp   string IsNullOrEmpty textbox Text                 textbox SelectAll

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Inside the Enter event TextBox1 SelectAll      Ok  after trying it here is what you want    On the Enter event start a flag that states that you have been in the enter event On the Click event  if you set the flag  call  SelectAll   and reset the flag  On the MouseMove event  set the entered flag to false  which will allow you to click highlight without having to enter the textbox first    This selected all the text on entry  but allowed me to highlight part of the text afterwards  or allow you to highlight on the first click   By request       bool entered   false      private void textBox1 Enter object sender  EventArgs e                entered   true          textBox1 SelectAll        From Jakub s answer             private void textBox1 Click object sender  EventArgs e                if  entered  textBox1 SelectAll            entered   false             private void textBox1 MouseMove object sender  MouseEventArgs e                if  entered  entered   false          For me  the tabbing into the control selects all the text

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private bool  isSelected   false  private void textBox Validated object sender  EventArgs e         isSelected   false     private void textBox MouseClick object sender  MouseEventArgs e        SelectAllText textBox      private void textBox Enter object sender  EventArgs e        SelectAllText textBox      private void SelectAllText TextBox text        if    isSelected                 isSelected   true          textBox SelectAll

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Actually GotFocus is the right event  message really  that you are interested in  since no matter how you get to the control you   ll get this even eventually   The question is when do you call SelectAll     Try this   public partial class Form1   Form       public Form1                 InitializeComponent            this textBox1 GotFocus    new EventHandler textBox1 GotFocus              private delegate void SelectAllDelegate            private IAsyncResult  selectAllar   null    So we can clean up afterwards         Catch the input focus event     void textBox1 GotFocus object sender  EventArgs e                  We could have gotten here many ways  including mouse click            so there could be other messages queued up already that might change the selection            Don t call SelectAll here  since it might get undone by things such as positioning the cursor            Instead use BeginInvoke on the form to queue up a message           to select all the text after everything caused by the current event is processed          this  selectAllar   this BeginInvoke new SelectAllDelegate this  SelectAll               private void  SelectAll                   Clean-up the BeginInvoke         if  this  selectAllar    null                        this EndInvoke this  selectAllar                       Now select everything          this textBox1 SelectAll

User · Answer

My Solution is pretty primitive but works fine for my purpose  private async void TextBox GotFocus object sender  RoutedEventArgs e        if  sender is TextBox                await Task Delay 100            sender as TextBox  SelectAll

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The answer can be actually quite more simple than ALL of the above  for example  in WPF    public void YourTextBox MouseEnter object sender  MouseEventArgs e                YourTextBox Focus            YourTextBox SelectAll            of course I can t know how you want to use this code  but the main part to look at here is  First call  Focus   and then call  SelectAll

User · Answer

The below seems to work  The enter event handles the tabbing to the control and the MouseDown works when the control is clicked       private             void textBox1 Enter object sender  EventArgs e                textBox1 SelectAll               private void textBox1 MouseDown object sender  MouseEventArgs e                if  textBox1 Focused              textBox1 SelectAll

User · Answer

Why don t you simply use the MouseDown-Event of the text box  It works fine for me and doesn t need an additional boolean  Very clean and simple  eg    private void textbox MouseDown object sender  MouseEventArgs e        if  textbox    null  amp  amp   string IsNullOrEmpty textbox Text                 textbox SelectAll

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Set the selction when you leave the control   It will be there when you get back   Tab around the form and when you return to the control  all the text will be selected    If you go in by mouse  then the caret will rightly be placed at the point where you clicked   private void maskedTextBox1 Leave object sender  CancelEventArgs e                maskedTextBox1 SelectAll

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Your solution is good  but fails in one specific case  If you give the TextBox focus by selecting a range of text instead of just clicking  the alreadyFocussed flag doesn t get set to true  so when you click in the TextBox a second time  all the text gets selected   Here is my version of the solution  I ve also put the code into a class which inherits TextBox  so the logic is nicely hidden away   public class MyTextBox   System Windows Forms TextBox       private bool  focused       protected override void OnEnter EventArgs e                base OnEnter e           if  MouseButtons    MouseButtons None                        SelectAll                 focused   true                       protected override void OnLeave EventArgs e                base OnLeave e            focused   false             protected override void OnMouseUp MouseEventArgs mevent                base OnMouseUp mevent           if    focused                        if  SelectionLength    0                  SelectAll                 focused   true

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Click event of textbox  Or even MouseCaptureChanged event works for me  - OK  doesn t work   So you have to do 2 things   private bool f   false   private void textBox MouseClick object sender  MouseEventArgs e       if  this f    this textBox SelectAll        this f   false     private void textBox Enter object sender  EventArgs e      this f   true    this textBox SelectAll      private void textBox MouseMove object sender  MouseEventArgs e     idea from the other answer     this f   false       Works for tabbing  through textBoxes to the one  as well - call SelectAll   in Enter just in case

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The below seems to work  The enter event handles the tabbing to the control and the MouseDown works when the control is clicked       private             void textBox1 Enter object sender  EventArgs e                textBox1 SelectAll               private void textBox1 MouseDown object sender  MouseEventArgs e                if  textBox1 Focused              textBox1 SelectAll

User · Answer

Inside the Enter event TextBox1 SelectAll      Ok  after trying it here is what you want    On the Enter event start a flag that states that you have been in the enter event On the Click event  if you set the flag  call  SelectAll   and reset the flag  On the MouseMove event  set the entered flag to false  which will allow you to click highlight without having to enter the textbox first    This selected all the text on entry  but allowed me to highlight part of the text afterwards  or allow you to highlight on the first click   By request       bool entered   false      private void textBox1 Enter object sender  EventArgs e                entered   true          textBox1 SelectAll        From Jakub s answer             private void textBox1 Click object sender  EventArgs e                if  entered  textBox1 SelectAll            entered   false             private void textBox1 MouseMove object sender  MouseEventArgs e                if  entered  entered   false          For me  the tabbing into the control selects all the text

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First of all  thanks for answers  9 total answers  Thank you   Bad news  all of the answers had some quirks or didn t work quite right  or at all   I ve added a comment to each of your posts   Good news  I ve found a way to make it work  This solution is pretty straightforward and seems to work in all the scenarios  mousing down  selecting text  tabbing focus  etc    bool alreadyFocused        textBox1 GotFocus    textBox1 GotFocus  textBox1 MouseUp    textBox1 MouseUp  textBox1 Leave    textBox1 Leave        void textBox1 Leave object sender  EventArgs e        alreadyFocused   false      void textBox1 GotFocus object sender  EventArgs e           Select all text only if the mouse isn t down         This makes tabbing to the textbox give focus      if  MouseButtons    MouseButtons None                this textBox1 SelectAll            alreadyFocused   true           void textBox1 MouseUp object sender  MouseEventArgs e           Web browsers like Google Chrome select the text on mouse up         They only do it if the textbox isn t already focused         and if the user hasn t selected all text      if   alreadyFocused  amp  amp  this textBox1 SelectionLength    0                alreadyFocused   true          this textBox1 SelectAll              As far as I can tell  this causes a textbox to behave exactly like a web browser s address bar   Hopefully this helps the next guy who tries to solve this deceptively simple problem   Thanks again  guys  for all your answers that helped lead me towards the correct path

User · Answer

For a group of textboxes in a form   private System Windows Forms TextBox lastFocus      private void textBox GotFocus object sender  System Windows Forms MouseEventArgs e           TextBox senderTextBox   sender as TextBox      if  lastFocus  senderTextBox           senderTextBox SelectAll              lastFocus   senderTextBox

User · Answer

This is working for me in  NET 2005 -           if the mouse button is down  do not run the select all      If MouseButtons   Windows Forms MouseButtons Left Then         Exit Sub     End If       OTHERWISE INVOKE THE SELECT ALL AS DISCUSSED

User · Answer

Have you tried the solution suggested on the MSDN Forum  Windows Forms General  which simply subclasses TextBox

User · Answer

Interestingly  a ComboBox with DropDownStyle Simple has pretty much exactly the behaviour you are looking for  I think    If you reduce the height of the control to not show the list - and then by a couple of pixels more - there s no effective difference between the ComboBox and the TextBox

User · Answer

I ve found an even simpler solution   To make sure all text is selected when clicking on a textBox  make sure that the Click handler calls the Enter handler  No need for extra variables   Example   private void textBox1 Click object sender  EventArgs e           textBox1 Enter sender  e          private void textBox1 Enter object sender  EventArgs e           TextBox tb     TextBox sender           tb SelectAll

User · Answer

It s a bit kludgey  but in your click event  use SendKeys Send    HOME   END

User · Answer

Interestingly  a ComboBox with DropDownStyle Simple has pretty much exactly the behaviour you are looking for  I think    If you reduce the height of the control to not show the list - and then by a couple of pixels more - there s no effective difference between the ComboBox and the TextBox

User · Answer

The below seems to work  The enter event handles the tabbing to the control and the MouseDown works when the control is clicked       private             void textBox1 Enter object sender  EventArgs e                textBox1 SelectAll               private void textBox1 MouseDown object sender  MouseEventArgs e                if  textBox1 Focused              textBox1 SelectAll

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A one line answer that I use   you might be kicking yourself     In the Enter Event   txtFilter BeginInvoke new MethodInvoker  txtFilter SelectAll

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private bool  isSelected   false  private void textBox Validated object sender  EventArgs e         isSelected   false     private void textBox MouseClick object sender  MouseEventArgs e        SelectAllText textBox      private void textBox Enter object sender  EventArgs e        SelectAllText textBox      private void SelectAllText TextBox text        if    isSelected                 isSelected   true          textBox SelectAll

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A one line answer that I use   you might be kicking yourself     In the Enter Event   txtFilter BeginInvoke new MethodInvoker  txtFilter SelectAll

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This worked for a WPF XAML TextBox       private bool initialEntry   true      private void TextBox SelectionChanged object sender  RoutedEventArgs e                if  initialEntry                        e Handled   true              initialEntry   false              TextBox SelectAll                        private void TextBox GotFocus object sender  RoutedEventArgs e                TextBox SelectAll            initialEntry   true

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The below seems to work  The enter event handles the tabbing to the control and the MouseDown works when the control is clicked       private             void textBox1 Enter object sender  EventArgs e                textBox1 SelectAll               private void textBox1 MouseDown object sender  MouseEventArgs e                if  textBox1 Focused              textBox1 SelectAll

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Actually GotFocus is the right event  message really  that you are interested in  since no matter how you get to the control you   ll get this even eventually   The question is when do you call SelectAll     Try this   public partial class Form1   Form       public Form1                 InitializeComponent            this textBox1 GotFocus    new EventHandler textBox1 GotFocus              private delegate void SelectAllDelegate            private IAsyncResult  selectAllar   null    So we can clean up afterwards         Catch the input focus event     void textBox1 GotFocus object sender  EventArgs e                  We could have gotten here many ways  including mouse click            so there could be other messages queued up already that might change the selection            Don t call SelectAll here  since it might get undone by things such as positioning the cursor            Instead use BeginInvoke on the form to queue up a message           to select all the text after everything caused by the current event is processed          this  selectAllar   this BeginInvoke new SelectAllDelegate this  SelectAll               private void  SelectAll                   Clean-up the BeginInvoke         if  this  selectAllar    null                        this EndInvoke this  selectAllar                       Now select everything          this textBox1 SelectAll

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Why don t you simply use the MouseDown-Event of the text box  It works fine for me and doesn t need an additional boolean  Very clean and simple  eg    private void textbox MouseDown object sender  MouseEventArgs e        if  textbox    null  amp  amp   string IsNullOrEmpty textbox Text                 textbox SelectAll

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Inside the Enter event TextBox1 SelectAll      Ok  after trying it here is what you want    On the Enter event start a flag that states that you have been in the enter event On the Click event  if you set the flag  call  SelectAll   and reset the flag  On the MouseMove event  set the entered flag to false  which will allow you to click highlight without having to enter the textbox first    This selected all the text on entry  but allowed me to highlight part of the text afterwards  or allow you to highlight on the first click   By request       bool entered   false      private void textBox1 Enter object sender  EventArgs e                entered   true          textBox1 SelectAll        From Jakub s answer             private void textBox1 Click object sender  EventArgs e                if  entered  textBox1 SelectAll            entered   false             private void textBox1 MouseMove object sender  MouseEventArgs e                if  entered  entered   false          For me  the tabbing into the control selects all the text

User · Answer

Very simple solution       private bool  focusing   false       protected override void OnEnter  EventArgs e                  focusing   true          base OnEnter  e               protected override void OnMouseUp  MouseEventArgs mevent                 base OnMouseUp  mevent             if   focusing                         this SelectAll                 focusing   false                    EDIT  Original OP was in particular concerned about the mouse-down   text-selection   mouse-up sequence  in which case the above simple solution would end up with text being partially selected   This should solve  the problem  in practice I intercept WM SETCURSOR        protected override void WndProc  ref Message m                 if  m Msg    32     WM SETCURSOR 0x20                         this SelectAll       or your custom logic here                                    base WndProc  ref m             Actually the following sequence ends up with partial text selection but then if you move the mouse over the textbox all text will be selected again    mouse-down   text-selection   mouse-move-out-textbox   mouse-up

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This is similar to nzhenry s popular answer  but I find it easier to not have to subclass   Private LastFocused As Control   Nothing  Private Sub TextBox1 Enter sender As Object  e As System EventArgs  Handles TextBox1 Enter  TextBox2 Enter  TextBox3 Enter     If MouseButtons   Windows Forms MouseButtons None Then LastFocused   sender End Sub  Private Sub TextBox1 Leave sender As Object  e As System EventArgs  Handles TextBox1 Leave  TextBox2 Leave  TextBox3 Leave     LastFocused   Nothing End Sub  Private Sub TextBox1 MouseUp sender As Object  e As System Windows Forms MouseEventArgs  Handles TextBox1 MouseUp  TextBox2 MouseUp  TextBox3 MouseUp     With CType sender  TextBox          If LastFocused IsNot sender AndAlso  SelectionLength   0 Then  SelectAll       End With     LastFocused   sender End Sub

User · Answer

Interestingly  a ComboBox with DropDownStyle Simple has pretty much exactly the behaviour you are looking for  I think    If you reduce the height of the control to not show the list - and then by a couple of pixels more - there s no effective difference between the ComboBox and the TextBox

User · Answer

Just derive a class from TextBox or MaskedTextBox   public class SMaskedTextBox   MaskedTextBox       protected override void OnGotFocus EventArgs e                base OnGotFocus e           this SelectAll              And use it on your forms

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Have you tried the solution suggested on the MSDN Forum  Windows Forms General  which simply subclasses TextBox

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I found a simpler solution to this  It involves kicking off the SelectAll asynchronously using Control BeginInvoke so that it occurs after the Enter and Click events have occurred   In C    private void MyTextBox Enter object sender  EventArgs e           Kick off SelectAll asyncronously so that it occurs after Click     BeginInvoke  Action delegate               MyTextBox SelectAll                In VB NET  thanks to Krishanu Dey   Private Sub MyTextBox Enter sender As Object  e As EventArgs  Handles MyTextBox Enter      BeginInvoke DirectCast Sub   MyTextBox SelectAll    Action    End Sub

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I know this was already solved but I have a suggestion that I think is actually rather simple   In the mouse up event all you have to do is place  if textBox SelectionLength   0        textBox SelectAll        It seems to work for me in VB NET  I know this is a C  question    sadly I m forced to use VB at my job   and I was having this issue  which is what brought me here      I haven t found any problems with it yet   except for the fact that it doesn t immediately select on click  but I was having problems with that

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The following solution works for me  I added OnKeyDown and OnKeyUp event override to keep the TextBox text always selected       public class NumericTextBox   TextBox       private bool  focused      protected override void OnGotFocus EventArgs e                base OnGotFocus e           if  MouseButtons    MouseButtons None                        this SelectAll                 focused   true                      protected override void OnEnter EventArgs e                base OnEnter e           if  MouseButtons    MouseButtons None                        SelectAll                 focused   true                       protected override void OnLeave EventArgs e                base OnLeave e            focused   false             protected override void OnMouseUp MouseEventArgs mevent                base OnMouseUp mevent           if    focused                        if  SelectionLength    0                  SelectAll                 focused   true                       protected override void OnKeyUp KeyEventArgs e                base OnKeyUp e            if  SelectionLength    0              SelectAll             focused   true            protected override void OnKeyDown KeyEventArgs e               base OnKeyDown e          if  SelectionLength    0              SelectAll             focused   true

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I found a simpler solution to this  It involves kicking off the SelectAll asynchronously using Control BeginInvoke so that it occurs after the Enter and Click events have occurred   In C    private void MyTextBox Enter object sender  EventArgs e           Kick off SelectAll asyncronously so that it occurs after Click     BeginInvoke  Action delegate               MyTextBox SelectAll                In VB NET  thanks to Krishanu Dey   Private Sub MyTextBox Enter sender As Object  e As EventArgs  Handles MyTextBox Enter      BeginInvoke DirectCast Sub   MyTextBox SelectAll    Action    End Sub

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Why don t you simply use the MouseDown-Event of the text box  It works fine for me and doesn t need an additional boolean  Very clean and simple  eg    private void textbox MouseDown object sender  MouseEventArgs e        if  textbox    null  amp  amp   string IsNullOrEmpty textbox Text                 textbox SelectAll

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I created a new VB Net Wpf project  I created one TextBox and used the following for the codebehind   Class MainWindow       Sub New              This call is required by the designer          InitializeComponent              Add any initialization after the InitializeComponent   call          AddHandler PreviewMouseLeftButtonDown  New MouseButtonEventHandler AddressOf SelectivelyIgnoreMouseButton          AddHandler GotKeyboardFocus  New KeyboardFocusChangedEventHandler AddressOf SelectAllText          AddHandler MouseDoubleClick  New MouseButtonEventHandler AddressOf SelectAllText      End Sub      Private Shared Sub SelectivelyIgnoreMouseButton ByVal sender As Object  ByVal e As MouseButtonEventArgs            Find the TextBox         Dim parent As DependencyObject   TryCast e OriginalSource  UIElement          While parent IsNot Nothing AndAlso Not  TypeOf parent Is TextBox              parent   VisualTreeHelper GetParent parent          End While          If parent IsNot Nothing Then             Dim textBox As Object   DirectCast parent  TextBox              If Not textBox IsKeyboardFocusWithin Then                   If the text box is not yet focussed  give it the focus and                   stop further processing of this click event                  textBox Focus                   e Handled   True             End If         End If     End Sub      Private Shared Sub SelectAllText ByVal sender As Object  ByVal e As RoutedEventArgs          Dim textBox As Object   TryCast e OriginalSource  TextBox          If textBox IsNot Nothing Then             textBox SelectAll           End If     End Sub  End Class

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I created a new VB Net Wpf project  I created one TextBox and used the following for the codebehind   Class MainWindow       Sub New              This call is required by the designer          InitializeComponent              Add any initialization after the InitializeComponent   call          AddHandler PreviewMouseLeftButtonDown  New MouseButtonEventHandler AddressOf SelectivelyIgnoreMouseButton          AddHandler GotKeyboardFocus  New KeyboardFocusChangedEventHandler AddressOf SelectAllText          AddHandler MouseDoubleClick  New MouseButtonEventHandler AddressOf SelectAllText      End Sub      Private Shared Sub SelectivelyIgnoreMouseButton ByVal sender As Object  ByVal e As MouseButtonEventArgs            Find the TextBox         Dim parent As DependencyObject   TryCast e OriginalSource  UIElement          While parent IsNot Nothing AndAlso Not  TypeOf parent Is TextBox              parent   VisualTreeHelper GetParent parent          End While          If parent IsNot Nothing Then             Dim textBox As Object   DirectCast parent  TextBox              If Not textBox IsKeyboardFocusWithin Then                   If the text box is not yet focussed  give it the focus and                   stop further processing of this click event                  textBox Focus                   e Handled   True             End If         End If     End Sub      Private Shared Sub SelectAllText ByVal sender As Object  ByVal e As RoutedEventArgs          Dim textBox As Object   TryCast e OriginalSource  TextBox          If textBox IsNot Nothing Then             textBox SelectAll           End If     End Sub  End Class

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Very simple solution       private bool  focusing   false       protected override void OnEnter  EventArgs e                  focusing   true          base OnEnter  e               protected override void OnMouseUp  MouseEventArgs mevent                 base OnMouseUp  mevent             if   focusing                         this SelectAll                 focusing   false                    EDIT  Original OP was in particular concerned about the mouse-down   text-selection   mouse-up sequence  in which case the above simple solution would end up with text being partially selected   This should solve  the problem  in practice I intercept WM SETCURSOR        protected override void WndProc  ref Message m                 if  m Msg    32     WM SETCURSOR 0x20                         this SelectAll       or your custom logic here                                    base WndProc  ref m             Actually the following sequence ends up with partial text selection but then if you move the mouse over the textbox all text will be selected again    mouse-down   text-selection   mouse-move-out-textbox   mouse-up

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private bool  isSelected   false  private void textBox Validated object sender  EventArgs e         isSelected   false     private void textBox MouseClick object sender  MouseEventArgs e        SelectAllText textBox      private void textBox Enter object sender  EventArgs e        SelectAllText textBox      private void SelectAllText TextBox text        if    isSelected                 isSelected   true          textBox SelectAll

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Click event of textbox  Or even MouseCaptureChanged event works for me  - OK  doesn t work   So you have to do 2 things   private bool f   false   private void textBox MouseClick object sender  MouseEventArgs e       if  this f    this textBox SelectAll        this f   false     private void textBox Enter object sender  EventArgs e      this f   true    this textBox SelectAll      private void textBox MouseMove object sender  MouseEventArgs e     idea from the other answer     this f   false       Works for tabbing  through textBoxes to the one  as well - call SelectAll   in Enter just in case

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My Solution is pretty primitive but works fine for my purpose  private async void TextBox GotFocus object sender  RoutedEventArgs e        if  sender is TextBox                await Task Delay 100            sender as TextBox  SelectAll

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SelectAll never worked for me   This works   ActiveControl   textBox1  textBox1- gt SelectionStart   0  textBox1- gt SelectionLength   textBox1- gt Text- gt Length

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I know this was already solved but I have a suggestion that I think is actually rather simple   In the mouse up event all you have to do is place  if textBox SelectionLength   0        textBox SelectAll        It seems to work for me in VB NET  I know this is a C  question    sadly I m forced to use VB at my job   and I was having this issue  which is what brought me here      I haven t found any problems with it yet   except for the fact that it doesn t immediately select on click  but I was having problems with that

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It s a bit kludgey  but in your click event  use SendKeys Send    HOME   END

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Here s a helper function taking the solution to the next level - reuse without inheritance       public static void WireSelectAllOnFocus  TextBox aTextBox                 bool lActive   false          aTextBox GotFocus    new EventHandler    sender  e     gt                        if   System Windows Forms Control MouseButtons    MouseButtons None                                 aTextBox SelectAll                    lActive   true                                      aTextBox Leave    new EventHandler   sender  e     gt                lActive   false                        aTextBox MouseUp    new MouseEventHandler   sender  e     gt                if    lActive                                 lActive   true                  if   aTextBox SelectionLength    0   aTextBox SelectAll                                         To use this simply call the function passing a TextBox and it takes care of all the messy bits for you  I suggest wiring up all your text boxes in the Form Load event  You can place this function in your form  or if your like me  somewhere in a utility class for even more reuse

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Set the selction when you leave the control   It will be there when you get back   Tab around the form and when you return to the control  all the text will be selected    If you go in by mouse  then the caret will rightly be placed at the point where you clicked   private void maskedTextBox1 Leave object sender  CancelEventArgs e                maskedTextBox1 SelectAll

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I called SelectAll inside MouseUp event and it worked fine for me       private bool  tailTextBoxFirstClick   false       private void textBox1 MouseUp object sender  MouseEventArgs e                if  textBoxFirstClick                         textBox1 SelectAll              textBoxFirstClick   false               private void textBox1 Leave object sender  EventArgs e                 textBoxFirstClick   true          textBox1 Select 0  0

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Have you tried the solution suggested on the MSDN Forum  Windows Forms General  which simply subclasses TextBox

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just use selectall   on enter and click events  private void textBox1 Enter object sender  EventArgs e                         textBox1 SelectAll                      private void textBox1 Click object sender  EventArgs e                        textBox1 SelectAll

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just use selectall   on enter and click events  private void textBox1 Enter object sender  EventArgs e                         textBox1 SelectAll                      private void textBox1 Click object sender  EventArgs e                        textBox1 SelectAll

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Here s a helper function taking the solution to the next level - reuse without inheritance       public static void WireSelectAllOnFocus  TextBox aTextBox                 bool lActive   false          aTextBox GotFocus    new EventHandler    sender  e     gt                        if   System Windows Forms Control MouseButtons    MouseButtons None                                 aTextBox SelectAll                    lActive   true                                      aTextBox Leave    new EventHandler   sender  e     gt                lActive   false                        aTextBox MouseUp    new MouseEventHandler   sender  e     gt                if    lActive                                 lActive   true                  if   aTextBox SelectionLength    0   aTextBox SelectAll                                         To use this simply call the function passing a TextBox and it takes care of all the messy bits for you  I suggest wiring up all your text boxes in the Form Load event  You can place this function in your form  or if your like me  somewhere in a utility class for even more reuse

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Click event of textbox  Or even MouseCaptureChanged event works for me  - OK  doesn t work   So you have to do 2 things   private bool f   false   private void textBox MouseClick object sender  MouseEventArgs e       if  this f    this textBox SelectAll        this f   false     private void textBox Enter object sender  EventArgs e      this f   true    this textBox SelectAll      private void textBox MouseMove object sender  MouseEventArgs e     idea from the other answer     this f   false       Works for tabbing  through textBoxes to the one  as well - call SelectAll   in Enter just in case

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This worked for a WPF XAML TextBox       private bool initialEntry   true      private void TextBox SelectionChanged object sender  RoutedEventArgs e                if  initialEntry                        e Handled   true              initialEntry   false              TextBox SelectAll                        private void TextBox GotFocus object sender  RoutedEventArgs e                TextBox SelectAll            initialEntry   true

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Click event of textbox  Or even MouseCaptureChanged event works for me  - OK  doesn t work   So you have to do 2 things   private bool f   false   private void textBox MouseClick object sender  MouseEventArgs e       if  this f    this textBox SelectAll        this f   false     private void textBox Enter object sender  EventArgs e      this f   true    this textBox SelectAll      private void textBox MouseMove object sender  MouseEventArgs e     idea from the other answer     this f   false       Works for tabbing  through textBoxes to the one  as well - call SelectAll   in Enter just in case

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It s a bit kludgey  but in your click event  use SendKeys Send    HOME   END

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Just derive a class from TextBox or MaskedTextBox   public class SMaskedTextBox   MaskedTextBox       protected override void OnGotFocus EventArgs e                base OnGotFocus e           this SelectAll              And use it on your forms

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This is working for me in  NET 2005 -           if the mouse button is down  do not run the select all      If MouseButtons   Windows Forms MouseButtons Left Then         Exit Sub     End If       OTHERWISE INVOKE THE SELECT ALL AS DISCUSSED

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For a group of textboxes in a form   private System Windows Forms TextBox lastFocus      private void textBox GotFocus object sender  System Windows Forms MouseEventArgs e           TextBox senderTextBox   sender as TextBox      if  lastFocus  senderTextBox           senderTextBox SelectAll              lastFocus   senderTextBox

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I find this work best  when mouse click and not release immediately       private bool SearchBoxInFocusAlready   false      private void SearchBox LostFocus object sender  RoutedEventArgs e                SearchBoxInFocusAlready   false             private void SearchBox PreviewMouseUp object sender  MouseButtonEventArgs e                if  e ButtonState    MouseButtonState Released  amp  amp  e ChangedButton    MouseButton Left  amp  amp              SearchBox SelectionLength    0  amp  amp  SearchBoxInFocusAlready    false                        SearchBox SelectAll                       SearchBoxInFocusAlready   true

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