How to Select All Text in a Field When It Gets the Focus

• Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions of Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows, 16-bit and 32-bit, version 4.0

SUMMARY

In many cases, it is best to select or highlight the full text of a field when that field gains the focus. This allows the user to simply begin typing to replace the original text with new text or to press TAB to leave text as it is, and move to the next field. This is particularly useful in screens where there are multiple text boxes bound to a Data control for example.

MORE INFORMATION

Step by Step Example

1. Start a new project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.

2. Place three text boxes on the form named Text1, Text2, and Text3.

3. Add the following code to the form1 code window:

   Option Explicit

      Sub Form_Load()
         Text1_lostfocus
         Text2_lostfocus
         Text3_lostfocus
      End Sub
   
      Sub SetSelected(ctl As Textbox)
         ctl.SelStart = 0
         ctl.SelLength = Len(ctl.Text)
      End Sub
   
      Private Sub text1_LostFocus()
          Call SetSelected(text1)
      End Sub
   
      Private Sub text2_LostFocus()
          Call SetSelected(text2)
      End Sub
   
      Private Sub text3_LostFocus()
          Call SetSelected(text3)
      End Sub
   
   

4. On the Run menu, click Start or press F5. You will notice that as you move to each text box, the text is highlighted as opposed to the default behavior of the mouse pointer remaining in front of the first letter in] the text box.

REFERENCES

Visual Basic Language Reference, SelLength, SelStart Properties, Pages 842-844

Q110394 - How to Automatically Select or Highlight Text Box Upon Focus