How to Create a Read-Only Text Box Using SendMessage API

- Standard and Professional Editions of Microsoft Visual Basic for

  Windows, versions 2.0 and 3.0

SUMMARY

Visual Basic does not have a Read-Only property for a text box. But you can create a read-only text box by calling the Windows API SendMessage function with the EM_SETREADONLY message.

MORE INFORMATION

Setting the text box state to read-only allows the user to scroll and highlight the text in the text box, but does not allow them to edit it. The program can still modify the text by changing the text property.

To create a read-only text box, call the Windows API SendMessage function, using the EM_SETREADONLY message constant as the second parameter. The SendMessage function requires the following parameters:

   ret& = SendMessage(hWnd%, uMsg%, wParam%, lParam&)

   ret&     holds the return value of the function call.
   hWnd%    identifies the window handle that is to receive the message.
   uMsg%    the message to be sent (EM_SETREADONLY).
   wParam%  specifies whether to set or remove the read-only state of
            the edit control. A value of TRUE sets the state to
            read-only; a value of FALSE sets the state to read/write.
   lParam&  not used for this message, set its value to 0&.

Step-by-Step Example

The following example loads a file into a text box, and then sets the text box state to read-only:

1. Start a new project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.

2. Add a text box (Text1) to Form1. Select the text box and press the F4 key to display the Properties window. Set the MultiLine property of Text1 to True and set the Scrollbars property to 3 - Both.

3. Add the following constants and declarations to the module level or to the general declarations of your code:

   Const WM_USER = &H400 Const EM_SETREADONLY = (WM_USER + 31)

      ' Enter the following Declare statement as one, single line:
      Declare Function SendMessage Lib "User" (ByVal hWnd As Integer,
         ByVal wMsg As Integer, ByVal wParam As Integer,
         ByVal lParam As Any) As Long
   
      NOTE: If you add the Const declarations to the .BAS module, you need to
      delcare them as Global Const.
   
   

4. Add the following code to the Form_Load Sub procedure:

      Sub Form_Load()
         Dim TmpStr As String
         Dim ret as Long
   
         Open "C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT" For Input As #1
         While Not Eof(1)
            ' Read a line of text in from the input file:
            Line Input #1, TmpStr
            ' Append it to the text box, adding carriage return and line feed:
            Text1.Text = Text1.Text & TmpStr & Chr$(13) & Chr$(10)
         Wend
         ' Set the text box to read-only mode:
         ret = SendMessage(Text1.hWnd, EM_SETREADONLY, True, 0&)
   
         If ret = 0 Then    ' Check the return value for error
            MsgBox "Could Not Set Text Box to Read-Only."
         End If
      End Sub
   
   

5. Start the program, or press the F5 key. When the program loads, it will read the AUTOEXEC.BAT file into the text box, and then set the read-only state of the text box. Then the user can scroll and highlight the text in the text box but won't be able to edit it.