Getting Started With TabControl in F#

Introduction

In this article you'll see how to create a TabControl. The .NET Framework provides the versatile server Control in Window Forms applications to manage the user layout. This article explains how to add the TabControl to a Windows Forms form. If your application is complex enough to need to arrange the information then you can use the TabPage property to add a number of tabs to the TabControl Control.

TabControl Class

The TabControl Class provides multiple tabs at a time in a single Windows Forms form. You can manage your information in the application. Each tab contains the specific information that is easy to manage the data in the application. A TabControl is just like a container that holds the data in a systematic way. Once the TabControl control is defined with its properties, we need to add it to a Windows Forms form by calling the "Form.Controls.Add" method.

Namespace for TabControl Class: System.Windows.Forms.TabControl

TabPage Property

The TabPage Property provides the list of tabs in the TabControl. The TabPage Property has the ability to add a new tab, remove a tab and set the order of tabs in the application.

Namespace for Tappage: System.Windows.Forms.TabPage

Now let's use the following procedure.

Step 1:

Open Visual Studio then select "Create New Project" --> "F# Console Application".

Step 2:

Now go to the Solution Explorer on the right side of the application. Select the references and right-click on it and select "Add references".

Step 3:

After selecting "Add References", in the framework template you need to select "System.Windows.Forms" and "System.Drawing" while holding down the "Ctrl" key and click on "Ok".

Step 4:

Provide the following code for the F# application:

// Learn more about F# at http://fsharp.net

//use the F# library

open System

//use the drawing classes

open System.Drawing

//specifies the location of the form class

open System.Windows.Forms

//specifies the font face and style

let ffont=new Font("Arial", 9.75F,FontStyle.Italic, GraphicsUnit.Point)

//creates a form

let tabform=new Form(Text="Use TabControl",StartPosition=FormStartPosition.CenterScreen,AutoScaleMode=AutoScaleMode.Font,ClientSize=new System.Drawing.Size(350,350),FormBorderStyle=FormBorderStyle.FixedSingle)

//creates a tab control set its TabSizeMode to fixed

let tabcontrol=new TabControl(Location=new System.Drawing.Point(20, 20),Size=new System.Drawing.Size(214, 192))

//creates a new tab page

let page1=new TabPage(Text="Monday",Cursor=Cursors.Hand)

//creates a new label

let page1label=new Label(Text="Monday Work",Font=ffont,Location=new System.Drawing.Point(20, 20))

//creates another tab page

let page2=new TabPage(Text="Tuesday",Cursor=Cursors.Hand)

//creates another label

let page2label=new Label(Text="Tuesday Work",Font=ffont,Location=new System.Drawing.Point(20, 20))

//creates a new tab page

let page3=new TabPage(Text="Wednesday",Cursor=Cursors.Hand)

//creates a new label

let page3label=new Label(Text="Wed Work",Font=ffont,Location=new System.Drawing.Point(20, 20))

//creates a new tab page

let page4=new TabPage(Text="Thursday",Cursor=Cursors.Hand)

//creates a new label

let page4label=new Label(Text="Thursday Work",Font=ffont,Location=new System.Drawing.Point(20, 20))

//creates a new tab page

let page5=new TabPage(Text="Friday",Cursor=Cursors.Hand)

//creates a new label

let page5label=new Label(Text="Friday Work",Font=ffont,Location=new System.Drawing.Point(20, 20))

//creates a new tab page

let page6=new TabPage(Text="Saturday",Cursor=Cursors.Hand)

//creates a new label

let page6label=new Label(Text="Saturday Work",Font=ffont,Location=new System.Drawing.Point(20, 20))

//adds the tabcontrol to our form

tabform.Controls.Add(tabcontrol)

//adds the tab pages to our tab control

tabcontrol.Controls.Add(page1)

//adds the label to the first page

page1.Controls.Add(page1label)

//adds the second page to our tab control

tabcontrol.Controls.Add(page2)

//adds the second label to our tab control

page2.Controls.Add(page2label)

//adds the tab pages to our tab control

tabcontrol.Controls.Add(page3)

//adds the label to the 3rd page

page3.Controls.Add(page3label)

tabcontrol.Controls.Add(page4)

//adds the label to the 4th page

page4.Controls.Add(page4label)

tabcontrol.Controls.Add(page5)

//adds the label to the 5th page

page5.Controls.Add(page5label)

tabcontrol.Controls.Add(page6)

//adds the label to the 6th page

page6.Controls.Add(page6label)

tabform.Show()

//executes our application

Application.Run(tabform)

Step 5:

Debug the application by pressing F5 and the result will appear in the application as in the following: figure:

Step 6:

Now you can select any tab by clicking on the tabcontrol.

Step 7:

If you want to check the Saturday work then just click on the Saturday Tab in the figure given below.

Summary

In this article, we discussed how to create and use a TabControl control. First we discussed how to create a TabControl and add tab pages to the TabControl. I hope it will help you to understand the TabControl control.