autoscroll to bottom of multiline textbox being updated by backgroundworker

37,542

Try it this way:

'textbox.Text = text
textbox.AppendText(text)

The code you commented out wasn't running on the GUI thread, and as M Granja pointed out, AppendText will automatically scroll to the appended text in the box, so no need to call ScrollToCaret.

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almg
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almg

Updated on April 06, 2020

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  • almg
    almg about 4 years

    I have a background worker control that is set to perform a task, and update a multiline text box on my main UI using a delegate procedure. this is all working perfectly, however once the updating scrolls off the bottom of the text box, the scroll bars appear, but the continuous refreshing causes the text box to stay locked at the top. Ideally, I would like the text box to auto-scroll itself to the bottom to show the latest entry in real-time. What would be the best way to implement this?

    I have tried using the scrolltocaret() method, with and without a SelectionStart = txtlog.Text.Length command preceding it. perhaps I'm putting it in the wrong place?

    some code samples below:

    Delegate code:

    Delegate Sub updateresults_delegate(ByVal textbox As TextBox, ByVal text As String)
    
    Private Sub updatelog_threadsafe(ByVal textbox As TextBox, ByVal text As String)
                If textbox.InvokeRequired Then
                    Dim mydelegate As New updateresults_delegate(AddressOf updatelog_threadsafe)
                    Me.Invoke(mydelegate, New Object() {textbox, text})
                    'Me.txtlog.SelectionStart = txtlog.Text.Length
                    'Me.txtlog.ScrollToCaret()
                Else
                    textbox.Text = text
                End If
            End Sub
    

    main backgroundworker activity:

    For i As Integer = val1 To val2
    'generate an IP address from split host parts and current value of i
                    host = s1(0) & "." & s1(1) & "." & s1(2) & "." & i
                    Try 'attempt to ping the IP
                        Dim reply As PingReply = pingsender.Send(host, timeoutval, buffer, options)
                        If reply.Status = IPStatus.Success Then
                            name = System.Net.Dns.GetHostEntry(host)'get DNS entry
                            resulttext += String.Format("{1} - {2}: reply: Bytes={3} time{4} TTL={5}{0}", vbCrLf, name.HostName, reply.Address.ToString, reply.Buffer.Length, getms(reply.RoundtripTime), reply.Options.Ttl) 'print out success text
                        Else
                            resulttext += String.Format("      {1}: Ping failed. {2}{0}", vbCrLf, host, reply.Status.ToString) 'print out fail text
                        End If
                        updatelog_threadsafe(txtlog, resulttext) 'send text to textbox
    
                System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000)
            Catch ex As Exception
    
            End Try
        Next
    

    I guess my main question is: I'm pretty certain that the textbox.scrolltocaret() is the correct method to use for what I want, but where is the best place for me to put it? I've tried it in the delegate, the main backgroundworker, as well as before & after the runworkerasync() method. none of these worked, and now I'm stumped!