[negligible]

Hey Chaps,

Rewriting someone else's old code at the moment which has raised a question in my brain.

Why would you put code in Form1_Load event handler? When Form1() is going to be run first on load anyway?

I figure .NET do implement most things for a reason. Is there a good one for splitting the code like this? Threading?

Thanks

[RexGrammer]

So you're wondering why forms have a Load event when they have a constructor?

Well the reason is simple: the constructor first initializes the form object, which before initialization was just free memory on the heap. Then the Form_Load event is executed. So before initialization (which is done by the constructor) no event can be executed.

A plus reason is just logic: the constructor is used to initialize some values, while the event is used for the program logic.

[negligible]

Ok, so it doesn't make any difference aside from organisational preferences. Thanks.

[RexGrammer]

And the point that without the InitializeComponent() in the constructor you wouldn't have a form. Also the constructor does something behind the curtains which is also important, it fills the memory in the heap needed for the class.

[tlhIn`toq]

negligible, on 31 January 2012 - 07:12 AM, said:

Ok, so it doesn't make any difference aside from organisational preferences. Thanks.

No no no. it DOES make a difference. And there is another event to consider... Form_shown

First a form (or any class) is constructed. At this point it is just manufactured. But it has not presence. No .Location, .Size, .Width etc. Notice that the constructor of a form calls the InitializeComponents() method from the designer.cs file. You could in theory make/set a bunch of property values before the GUI parts are ever created.

Then a form is loaded. So now it has a physical presence. You can do things with the GUI elements of the form because they exist now. Maybe you want to adjust the width of a combobox to better adjust for the largest element in it.

Then the form is Shown. This happens when it is displayed on screen. Maybe this is where you start a timer, because the user has x seconds to do something once they can see the form.

[tlokzz]

So what do you guys prefer?

In form load event, or after InitializeComponent() in the constructor?

For me, I like both I guess. Depends on what I'm going to be doing on initialization. Like said above, I like to put programming in the load event and variable setting in the constructor.

[logicPwn]

I use both just like tlokzz said