Adding Placeholder Text to Textbox

Adding placeholder text to textbox

Wouldn't that just be something like this:

Textbox myTxtbx = new Textbox();
myTxtbx.Text = "Enter text here...";

myTxtbx.GotFocus += GotFocus.EventHandle(RemoveText);
myTxtbx.LostFocus += LostFocus.EventHandle(AddText);

public void RemoveText(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (myTxtbx.Text == "Enter text here...") 
    {
     myTxtbx.Text = "";
    }
}

public void AddText(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(myTxtbx.Text))
        myTxtbx.Text = "Enter text here...";
}

Thats just pseudocode but the concept is there.

How to add placeholder text to ToolStripTextBox?

ToolStripTextBox hosts a ToolStripTextBoxControl inside which is derived from TextBox and you can access the the hosted control using its TextBox or its Control property. So you can write such code:

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Windows.Forms;

[ToolboxBitmap(typeof(ToolStripTextBox))]
public class MyToolStripTextBox : ToolStripTextBox
{
    private const int EM_SETCUEBANNER = 0x1501;
    [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
    private static extern Int32 SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int msg,
        int wParam, string lParam);
    public MyToolStripTextBox()
    {
        this.Control.HandleCreated += Control_HandleCreated;
    }
    private void Control_HandleCreated(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(cueBanner))
            UpdateCueBanner();
    }
    string cueBanner;
    public string CueBanner
    {
        get { return cueBanner; }
        set
        {
            cueBanner = value;
            UpdateCueBanner();
        }
    }
    private void UpdateCueBanner()
    {
        SendMessage(this.Control.Handle, EM_SETCUEBANNER, 0, cueBanner);
    }
}

Placeholder in TextBox in Window Forms using VB.NET

.NET 5.0+ or .NET Core 3.0+

Use TextBox.PlaceholderText property:

textBox1.PlaceholderText = "Enter your name"

.NET Framework

You can use either of the following approaches:

• Sending EM_SETCUEBANNER to use the built-in placeholder feature of TextBox (Which just supports single-line text with gray placeholder text)

• Handling WM_PAINT message to show placeholder with custom color on both multi-line and single line TextBox (Which is the way that later is implemented in .NET Core)

Using EM_SETCUEBANNER

You can find a C# implementation of this approach here in this
post.

By sending EM_SETCUEBANNER to a TextBox, you can set the textual cue, or tip, that is displayed by the edit control to prompt the user for information.

Imports System
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Imports System.Windows.Forms

Public Class MyTextBox
    Inherits TextBox

    Private Const EM_SETCUEBANNER As Integer = &H1501
    <DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet:=CharSet.Auto)>
    Private Shared Function SendMessage(ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, ByVal msg As Integer, _
        ByVal wParam As Integer, ByVal lParam As String) As Int32
    End Function

    Protected Overrides Sub OnHandleCreated(e As EventArgs)
        MyBase.OnHandleCreated(e)
        If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(CueBanner) Then UpdateCueBanner()
    End Sub

    Private m_CueBanner As String
    Public Property CueBanner As String
        Get
            Return m_CueBanner
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            m_CueBanner = value
            UpdateCueBanner()
        End Set
    End Property

    Private Sub UpdateCueBanner()
        SendMessage(Me.Handle, EM_SETCUEBANNER, 0, CueBanner)
    End Sub
End Class

Handling WM_PAINT

You can find a C# implementation of this approach here in this
post.

If you use EM_SETCUEBANNER, the hint always will be shown in a system default color. Also the hint will not be shown when the TextBox is MultiLine.

Using the painting solution, you can show the text with any color that you want. You also can show the watermark when the control is multi-line

Imports System.Drawing
Imports System.Windows.Forms
Public Class ExTextBox
    Inherits TextBox

    Private m_Hint As String
    Public Property Hint As String
        Get
            Return m_Hint
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            m_Hint = value
            Me.Invalidate()
        End Set
    End Property

    Protected Overrides Sub WndProc(ByRef m As Message)
        MyBase.WndProc(m)

        If m.Msg = &HF Then
            If Not Me.Focused AndAlso String.IsNullOrEmpty(Me.Text) _
                AndAlso Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(Me.Hint) Then
                Using g = Me.CreateGraphics()
                    TextRenderer.DrawText(g, Me.Hint, Me.Font, Me.ClientRectangle, _
                        SystemColors.GrayText, Me.BackColor, _
                        TextFormatFlags.Top Or TextFormatFlags.Left)
                End Using
            End If
        End If
    End Sub
End Class

How to Enter Placeholder Text Within Html.TextBoxFor in C# / MVC 4

Use an overload of TextBoxFor() with an htmlAttributes argument. This argument should be an anonymous object with all attributes you wish to assign to the input.

For example, if you want to set the placeholder and class attributes:

@Html.TextBoxFor( m => m.Email, new { placeholder = "Email", @class = "form-input" } )

How to set placeholder text in ASP.NET MVC TextBox

Its seems you are setting placeholder text in the input fields in wrong way. Please do as follows:

<span class="SignUpText">
    @Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Name, new { placeholder="Name" })
</span>
<span class="SignUpText">
    @Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Email, new { placeholder="E-mail" })
</span>

Now you don't need to do anything with jQuery.

Watermark / hint / placeholder text in TextBox?

This is a sample which demonstrates how to create a watermark textbox in WPF:

<Window x:Class="WaterMarkTextBoxDemo.Window1"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:local="clr-namespace:WaterMarkTextBoxDemo"
    Height="200" Width="400">

    <Window.Resources>

        <SolidColorBrush x:Key="brushWatermarkBackground" Color="White" />
        <SolidColorBrush x:Key="brushWatermarkForeground" Color="LightSteelBlue" />
        <SolidColorBrush x:Key="brushWatermarkBorder" Color="Indigo" />

        <BooleanToVisibilityConverter x:Key="BooleanToVisibilityConverter" />
        <local:TextInputToVisibilityConverter x:Key="TextInputToVisibilityConverter" />

        <Style x:Key="EntryFieldStyle" TargetType="Grid" >
            <Setter Property="HorizontalAlignment" Value="Stretch" />
            <Setter Property="VerticalAlignment" Value="Center" />
            <Setter Property="Margin" Value="20,0" />
        </Style>

    </Window.Resources>


    <Grid Background="LightBlue">

        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition />
            <RowDefinition />
            <RowDefinition />
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>

        <Grid Grid.Row="0" Background="{StaticResource brushWatermarkBackground}" Style="{StaticResource EntryFieldStyle}" >
            <TextBlock Margin="5,2" Text="This prompt dissappears as you type..." Foreground="{StaticResource brushWatermarkForeground}"
                       Visibility="{Binding ElementName=txtUserEntry, Path=Text.IsEmpty, Converter={StaticResource BooleanToVisibilityConverter}}" />
            <TextBox Name="txtUserEntry" Background="Transparent" BorderBrush="{StaticResource brushWatermarkBorder}" />
        </Grid>

        <Grid Grid.Row="1" Background="{StaticResource brushWatermarkBackground}" Style="{StaticResource EntryFieldStyle}" >
            <TextBlock Margin="5,2" Text="This dissappears as the control gets focus..." Foreground="{StaticResource brushWatermarkForeground}" >
                <TextBlock.Visibility>
                    <MultiBinding Converter="{StaticResource TextInputToVisibilityConverter}">
                        <Binding ElementName="txtUserEntry2" Path="Text.IsEmpty" />
                        <Binding ElementName="txtUserEntry2" Path="IsFocused" />
                    </MultiBinding>
                </TextBlock.Visibility>
            </TextBlock>
            <TextBox Name="txtUserEntry2" Background="Transparent" BorderBrush="{StaticResource brushWatermarkBorder}" />
        </Grid>

    </Grid>

</Window>

TextInputToVisibilityConverter is defined as:

using System;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows;

namespace WaterMarkTextBoxDemo
{
    public class TextInputToVisibilityConverter : IMultiValueConverter
    {
        public object Convert( object[] values, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture )
        {
            // Always test MultiValueConverter inputs for non-null
            // (to avoid crash bugs for views in the designer)
            if (values[0] is bool && values[1] is bool)
            {
                bool hasText = !(bool)values[0];
                bool hasFocus = (bool)values[1];

                if (hasFocus || hasText)
                    return Visibility.Collapsed;
            }

            return Visibility.Visible;
        }


        public object[] ConvertBack( object value, Type[] targetTypes, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture )
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }
    }
}

Note: This is not my code. I found it here, but I think this is the best approach.

Can't set placeholder on TextBox

Try this

<TextBox Name="search" Text="Search a user..." GotFocus="search_GotFocus"/>

 private void  search_GotFocus(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        search.Text = "";

    }

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