Syntax 1 For editable controls (except RichTextEdit)

Description

Selects text in an editable control. You specify where the
selection begins and how many characters to select.

Controls

DataWindow, EditMask, InkEdit, MultiLineEdit, SingleLineEdit, DropDownListBox,
and DropDownPictureListBox controls

Syntax

<span>editname</span>.<span>SelectText</span> ( <span>start</span>, <span>length</span> )

1	<span>editname</span>.<span>SelectText</span> ( <span>start</span>, <span>length</span> )

Argument	Description
editname	The name of the DataWindow, EditMask, InkEdit, MultiLineEdit, SingleLineEdit, DropDownListBox, or DropDownPictureListBox control in which you want to select text.
start	A long specifying the position at which you want to start the selection.
length	A long specifying the number of characters you want to select. If length is 0, no text is selected but PowerBuilder moves the insertion point to the location specified in start.

Return Values

Integer for DataWindow and list boxes, Long for
other controls.

Returns the number of characters selected.
If an error occurs, SelectText returns -1.

Usage

If the control does not have the focus when you call SelectText,
then the text is not highlighted until the control has focus. To
set focus on the control so that the selected text is highlighted,
call the SetFocus function.

How much to select

When you want to select all the text of a line edit or select
the contents from a specified position to the end of the edit, use
the Len function to obtain the length of the
control’s text.

To select text in a DataWindow with the RichTextEdit presentation
style, use Syntax 2.

Examples

This statement sets the insertion point at the end
of the text in the SingleLineEdit sle_name:

sle_name.<span>SelectText</span>(Len(sle_name.Text), 0)

1	sle_name.<span>SelectText</span>(Len(sle_name.Text), 0)

This statement selects the entire contents of the
SingleLineEdit sle_name:

sle_name.<span>SelectText</span>(1, Len(sle_name.Text))

1	sle_name.<span>SelectText</span>(1, Len(sle_name.Text))

The rest of these examples assume the MultiLineEdit mle_EmpAddress contains Boston Street.

The following statement selects the string ost and
returns 3:

mle_EmpAddress.<span>SelectText</span>(2, 3)

1	mle_EmpAddress.<span>SelectText</span>(2, 3)

The next statement selects the string oston Street and returns 12:

mle_EmpAddress.<span>SelectText</span>(2, &amp;

1	mle_EmpAddress.<span>SelectText</span>(2, &

        Len(mle_EmpAddress.Text))

1	Len(mle_EmpAddress.Text))

These statements select the string Bos,
returns 3, and sets the focus to mle_EmpAddress so
that Bos is highlighted:

mle_EmpAddress.<span>SelectText</span>(1, 3)

1	mle_EmpAddress.<span>SelectText</span>(1, 3)

mle_EmpAddress.SetFocus()

1	mle_EmpAddress.SetFocus()

Syntax 1 For editable controls (except RichTextEdit) – PB Docs 126