There is unfortunately no so-called ‘built-in’ way to get the current line number in a Visual Basic.NET Textbox control. Microsoft added that support in Visual Basic 2005/2008/2010. But many still use the original .NET versions which do not have that feature in the textbox control.
What to do? Well, there is a somewhat easy way to add this feature by using the Windows API. The API to use is the SendMessage API call. Below is the declaration, constant value, and line# variable…
Getting the Current Line Number code
' 'Unfortunately, .NET before 2005 doesn’t have a built-in feature to get the current 'line. So I am using the SendMessage API to do it. You CAN do various extractions or 'whatever to do it, but this is easier and more elegant in my opinion. ' 'Used to Send Messages to the control and will be used with a request for the 'current line number in the textbox control. Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32.dll" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal winHandle As Int32, _ ByVal wMsg As Int32, ByVal wParam As Int32, ByVal lParam As Int32) As Int32 ' 'Constant found in the VB 6.0 API Viewer App IT will be passed to the SendMessage 'API to tell the control to give the current Line # from the textbox character position. Public Const EM_LINEFROMCHAR = &HC9 ' 'Will be used to contain the current line #. Dim lineNum As Int32
You can put the codes below in the textbox_Click, textbox_Keydown, textbox_TextChange event you want to take place or a button control to get the line# results or whatever. In other words, put the code for where/when you want the current line results.
I put these codes in the Textbox_TextChanges event and used a label control to display the current line number. Its also worth nothing that Windows reports line # starting at “0”. So if the API returns a “0”, you can Add (+) one to the value which will then show the line# as 1. Another example is if the Windows API returns a 1, but in reality the current line is the second, then as before simple add (+) a One(1) to the value which will then be line #2.
' 'Call the API to get the Line # from the current char. Txt is your textbox control. lineNum = SendMessage(txt.Handle.ToInt32, EM_LINEFROMCHAR, -1, 0) ' 'Windows sees the first line in a edit box as line 0. So just add a value of 1 to the 'result if you want the first line to be line #1. lblCurrent.Text = "Current Line: #" & (lineNum + 1).ToString ' 'Check for line count first to keep a possible error from happening if the textbox has 'none. If txt.Lines.Length > 0 Then ' 'Get the text at the current line position. txtLineText.Text = txt.Lines.GetValue(lineNum) End If
Thats all there is to it! When you run your project and type your characters or make a new line or whatever in the textbox, the label control should show the number that the caret or cursor is currently at. If you want the Line # code to be updated when the mouse clicks on a different line or position, simply put the code above in the textbox_Click event. Have Fun!
Jason
Revisited: 2015
Hi,
sir i used this its working very well thankx,
i also need that when i click a line then that will also selected.
Thanks man, it really works on vb.net 2005