C# Message Box

string message = "Simple MessageBox";  
MessageBox.Show(message);

string message = "Simple MessageBox";  
string title = "Title";  
MessageBox.Show(message, title); 

string message = "Do you want to close this window?";  
string title = "Close Window";  
MessageBoxButtons buttons = MessageBoxButtons.YesNo;  
DialogResult result = MessageBox.Show(message, title, buttons);  
if (result == DialogResult.Yes) {  
    this.Close();  
} else {  
    // Do something  
}

string message = "Do you want to abort this operation?";  
string title = "Close Window";  
MessageBoxButtons buttons = MessageBoxButtons.AbortRetryIgnore;  
DialogResult result = MessageBox.Show(message, title, buttons, MessageBoxIcon.Warning);  
if (result == DialogResult.Abort) {  
    this.Close();  
}  
elseif(result == DialogResult.Retry) {  
    // Do nothing  
}  
else {  
    // Do something  
}

MessageBox with Default Button

We can also set the default button on a MessageBox. By default, the first button is the default button. The MessageBoxDefaultButton enumeration is used for this purpose and it has the following three values.

• Button1
• Button2
• Button3

The following code snippet creates a MessageBox with a title, buttons, and an icon and sets the second button as a default button.

string message = "Do you want to abort this operation?";  
string title = "Close Window";  
MessageBoxButtons buttons = MessageBoxButtons.AbortRetryIgnore;  
DialogResult result = MessageBox.Show(message, title, buttons, MessageBoxIcon.Warning, MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button2);  
if (result == DialogResult.Abort) {  
    this.Close();  
}  
elseif(result == DialogResult.Retry) {  
    // Do nothing  
}  
else {  
    // Do something  
}

MessageBox with Message Options

MessageBoxOptions enumeration represents various options and has the following values.

• ServiceNotification
• DefaultDesktopOnly
• RightAlign
• RtlReading

The following code snippet creates a MessageBox with various options.

DialogResult result = MessageBox.Show(message, title, buttons,  
MessageBoxIcon.Warning, MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button2,  
MessageBoxOptions.RightAlign|MessageBoxOptions.RtlReading);  

MessageBox with Help Button

A MessageBox can have an extra button called Help button. This is useful when we need to display a help file. The following code snippet creates a MessageBox with a Help button.

DialogResult result = MessageBox.Show(message, title, buttons,  
MessageBoxIcon.Warning, MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button2,  
MessageBoxOptions.RightAlign, true );  

We can also specify a help file when the Help button is clicked. The following code snippet references a help file.

DialogResult result = MessageBox.Show(message, title,  
buttons, MessageBoxIcon.Question, MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button1, 0, "helpfile.chm");  

Summary

In this article, we discussed how to create and use a MessageBox in a Windows Forms application.