TextEdit.SelectionLength Property

Gets or sets the number of characters selected in the text box.

Namespace: DevExpress.XtraEditors

Assembly: DevExpress.XtraEditors.v19.1.dll

Declaration

C#

[Browsable(false)]
public int SelectionLength { get; set; }

VB.NET

<Browsable(False)>
Public Property SelectionLength As Integer

Property Value

Type	Description
Int32	An integer value specifying the number of characters selected in the text box.

Remarks

The SelectionLength property specifies the number of characters selected within the editor. The first selected character is referred by the TextEdit.SelectionStart property. These properties can be used together to select text in the editor. When the value of the TextEdit.SelectionLength property is set to a value that is larger than the number of characters within the edit box, the value of the TextEdit.SelectionLength property is set to the entire length of text within the control minus the value of the TextEdit.SelectionStart property (if any value is specified for the TextEdit.SelectionStart property).

You can use SelectionLength to determine if any characters are currently selected in the text editor before performing operations on the selected text.

Example

The following code pastes text from the Clipboard to a TextEdit control. The text is pasted only if the Clipboard contains data in text format.

If the text editor contains selected text before pasting, a message box appears asking about overriding the selection. If the end-user presses the No button, the text from the Clipboard is inserted at the end of the selection. Otherwise, the text is pasted over the selection.

C#

private void button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e) {
    if (Clipboard.GetDataObject().GetDataPresent("System.String") == true) {
        if (textEdit1.SelectionLength > 0) {
            if (MessageBox.Show("Do you want to paste over current selection?",
              "Paste Example", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation) ==
                DialogResult.No) {
                textEdit1.SelectionStart += textEdit1.SelectionLength;
                textEdit1.SelectionLength = 0;
            }
        }
    }
    textEdit1.Paste();
}

VB.NET

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
Handles Button1.Click
    If Clipboard.GetDataObject().GetDataPresent("System.String") = True Then
        If TextEdit1.SelectionLength > 0 Then
                If MessageBox.Show("Do you want to paste over current selection?", 
                  "Paste Example", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation) = _
                  DialogResult.No Then
                TextEdit1.SelectionStart = TextEdit1.SelectionStart + TextEdit1.SelectionLength
                TextEdit1.SelectionLength = 0
            End If
        End If
        TextEdit1.Paste()
    End If
End Sub

Related GitHub Examples

The following code snippets (auto-collected from DevExpress Examples) contain references to the SelectionLength property.

Note

The algorithm used to collect these code examples remains a work in progress. Accordingly, the links and snippets below may produce inaccurate results. If you encounter an issue with code examples below, please use the feedback form on this page to report the issue.

C#

how-to-allow-entering-text-into-the-memoexedit-directly-using-the-popupcontaineredit-control-e2171/CS/WindowsFormsApplication10/Form1.cs#L47

    (sender as TextEdit).SelectionStart = 0;
    (sender as TextEdit).SelectionLength = (sender as TextEdit).Text.Length;
}

how-to-add-a-new-row-to-a-grid-by-typing-in-a-new-item-row-as-in-datagridview-e2891/CS/WindowsApplication3/Main.cs#L43

    edit.SelectionStart = 1;
    edit.SelectionLength = 0;
}

how-to-create-an-analog-of-gridlookupedit-with-treelist-in-a-popup-window-e4319/CS/TreeListLookUpEdit.cs#L120

this.SelectionStart = helper.GetCorrectedAutoSearchSelectionStart(Text, pressedKey);
this.SelectionLength = nodeText.Length - this.SelectionStart;
if (Properties.TreeList.FocusedNode != null)

how-to-implement-a-custom-inplace-editor-for-appointments-e4826/CS/SchedulerInplaceEditorExample/MyInplaceEditor.cs#L81

if (storage.Appointments.IsNewAppointment(appointment)) {
    edtSubject.SelectionLength = 0;
    edtSubject.SelectionStart = edtSubject.Text.Length;

VB.NET

how-to-allow-entering-text-into-the-memoexedit-directly-using-the-popupcontaineredit-control-e2171/VB/WindowsFormsApplication10/Form1.vb#L41

    TryCast(sender, TextEdit).SelectionStart = 0
    TryCast(sender, TextEdit).SelectionLength = (TryCast(sender, TextEdit)).Text.Length
End Sub

how-to-add-a-new-row-to-a-grid-by-typing-in-a-new-item-row-as-in-datagridview-e2891/VB/WindowsApplication3/Main.vb#L37

    edit.SelectionStart = 1
    edit.SelectionLength = 0
End If

how-to-implement-the-cells-multi-selection-feature-in-treelist-e2795/VB/WindowsApplication1/Helper/BlockSelector.vb#L46

End If
If editor.SelectionLength > 0 Then
    Return

how-to-create-an-analog-of-gridlookupedit-with-treelist-in-a-popup-window-e4319/VB/TreeListLookUpEdit.vb#L121

Me.SelectionStart = helper.GetCorrectedAutoSearchSelectionStart(Text, pressedKey)
Me.SelectionLength = nodeText.Length - Me.SelectionStart
If Properties.TreeList.FocusedNode IsNot Nothing Then

how-to-implement-a-custom-inplace-editor-for-appointments-e4826/VB/SchedulerInplaceEditorExample/MyInplaceEditor.vb#L79

If storage.Appointments.IsNewAppointment(appointment) Then
    edtSubject.SelectionLength = 0
    edtSubject.SelectionStart = edtSubject.Text.Length