Windows Form color changing

Question

So i am attempting to make a MasterMind program as sort of exercise.

• Field of 40 picture boxes (line of 4, 10 rows)
• 6 buttons (red, green, orange, yellow, blue, purple)

When i press one of these buttons (lets assume the red one) then a picture box turns red.
My question is how do i iterate trough all these picture boxes?
I can get it to work but only if i write :
And this is offcourse no way to write this, would take me countless of lines that contain basicly the same.

        private void picRood_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        UpdateDisplay();
        pb1.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Red;
    }

Press the red button -> first picture box turns red
Press the blue button -> second picture box turns blue
Press the orange button -> third picture box turns orange
And so on...

Ive had a previous similar program that simulates a traffic light, there i could assign a value to each color (red 0, orange 1, green 2).
Is something similar needed or how exactly do i adress all those picture boxes and make them correspond to the proper button.

Best Regards.

Answer 1

I wouldn't use controls, instead you can use a single PictureBox and handle the Paint event. This lets you draw inside that PictureBox so you can quickly handle all your boxes.

In code:

// define a class to help us manage our grid
public class GridItem {
    public Rectangle Bounds {get; set;}
    public Brush Fill {get; set;}
}

// somewhere in your initialization code ie: the form's constructor
public MyForm() {
    // create your collection of grid items
    gridItems = new List<GridItem>(4 * 10); // width * height
    for (int y = 0; y < 10; y++) {
        for (int x = 0; x < 4; x++) {
            gridItems.Add(new GridItem() {
                Bounds = new Rectangle(x * boxWidth, y * boxHeight, boxWidth, boxHeight),
                Fill = Brushes.Red // or whatever color you want
            });
        }
    }
}

// make sure you've attached this to your pictureBox's Paint event
private void PictureBoxPaint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e) {
    // paint all your grid items
    foreach (GridItem item in gridItems) {
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(item.Fill, item.Bounds);
    }
}

// now if you want to change the color of a box
private void OnClickBlue(object sender, EventArgs e) {
    // if you need to set a certain box at row,column use:
    // index = column + row * 4
    gridItems[2].Fill = Brushes.Blue; 
    pictureBox.Invalidate(); // we need to repaint the picturebox
}

Answer 2

I would use a panel as the container control for all the pic boxes, then:

foreach (PictureBox pic in myPanel.Controls)
{
    // do something to set a color
    // buttons can set an enum representing a hex value for color maybe...???
}

Answer 3

I wouldn't use pictureboxes, but instead would use a single picturebox, drawing directly onto it using GDI. The result is a lot faster, and it will set you up to write more complex games involving sprites and animation ;)

It's very easy to learn how.