Common .NET public form methods

The following table shows some of the more common .NET public form methods.

Table 1. Common .NET public form methods
Method Description
Activate( ) Brings the form to the front and publishes the Activated event.
Close( ) Closes the open form, publishing the FormClosing event followed by the FormClosed event. This method also calls the Dispose( ) method on the form.
Dispose( ) See Table 1.
Hide( ) Conceals the form from the user by setting its Visible property to FALSE.
ResumeLayout( ) See Table 1.
Show( ) Initializes the form for display or reveals the form to the user by setting its Visible property to TRUE. You do not always need to call this method to initially display the form, depending on how you block for input on the form. For more information, see ABL support for managing .NET forms and controls.
ShowDialog( ) Displays and blocks for input on the form as a modal dialog box. You can only call this method using the WAIT-FOR statement for .NET forms (.NET WAIT-FOR statement). For more information see ABL support for managing .NET forms and controls.
Note: To block for input on the form as a non-modal window (whether for a single form or for an MDI form), you must call the static Run( ) method on the System.Windows.Forms.Application class from within a .NET WAIT-FOR statement.
SuspendLayout( ) See Table 1.

Other common methods for controls might also apply to forms. For more information, see Table 1.