How to enumerate the names of all resources in a .resources file

Resources can be linked into assemblies using the assembly linker or Visual Studio and sometimes they can be compiled and stored in a resource file. To find out what you've got in the latter case you need to load the file and enumerate the name-value pairs that store the resource information. This is accomplished with the ResourceReader class that enables you to operate on .resources files. Listing 1 shows a simple application that demonstrates the use of the ResourceReader and the IDictionaryEnumerator it provides.

In particular note how the handler for button 1 works, see button1_Click.

Listing 1.

using System;

using System.Resources;

using System.Drawing;

using System.Collections;

using System.ComponentModel;

using System.Windows.Forms;

using System.Data;

namespace resourceenumerator

{

/// <summary>

/// Summary description for Form1.

/// </summary>

public class Form1 : System.Windows.Forms.Form

{

private System.Windows.Forms.Button button1;

private System.Windows.Forms.Button button2;

private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox textBox1;

/// <summary>

/// Required designer variable.

/// </summary>

private System.ComponentModel.Container components = null;

public Form1()

{

// Required for Windows Form Designer support

InitializeComponent();

// TODO: Add any constructor code after InitializeComponent call

}

/// <summary>

/// Clean up any resources being used.

/// </summary>

protected override void Dispose( bool disposing )

{

if( disposing )

{

if (components != null)

{

components.Dispose();

}

base.Dispose( disposing );

}

#region Windows Form Designer generated code

/// <summary>

/// Required method for Designer support - do not modify

/// the contents of this method with the code editor.

/// </summary>

private void InitializeComponent()

{

this.button1 = new System.Windows.Forms.Button();

this.button2 = new System.Windows.Forms.Button();

this.textBox1 = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox();

this.SuspendLayout();

// button1

this.button1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(208, 200);

this.button1.Name = "button1";

this.button1.TabIndex = 0;

this.button1.Text = "Open";

this.button1.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.button1_Click);

// button2

this.button2.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(208, 232);

this.button2.Name = "button2";

this.button2.TabIndex = 1;

this.button2.Text = "Quit";

this.button2.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.button2_Click);

// textBox1

this.textBox1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(8, 8);

this.textBox1.Multiline = true;

this.textBox1.Name = "textBox1";

this.textBox1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(272, 184);

this.textBox1.TabIndex = 2;

this.textBox1.Text = "";

// Form1

this.AutoScaleBaseSize = new System.Drawing.Size(5, 13);

this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(292, 266);

this.Controls.Add(this.textBox1);

this.Controls.Add(this.button2);

this.Controls.Add(this.button1);

this.FormBorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.FixedDialog;

this.Name = "Form1";

this.Text = "Form1";

this.ResumeLayout(false);

}

#endregion

/// <summary>

/// The main entry point for the application.

/// </summary>

[STAThread]

static void Main()

{

Application.Run(new Form1());

}

private void button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

{

OpenFileDialog dlg=new OpenFileDialog();

dlg.Filter="Resource files|*.resources";

if(dlg.ShowDialog()==DialogResult.OK)

{

ResourceReader rr=new ResourceReader(dlg.FileName);

IDictionaryEnumerator en = rr.GetEnumerator();

while(en.MoveNext())

this.textBox1.Text+=en.Key+"\r\n";

}

private void button2_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

{

Application.Exit();

}

Return to Windows Forms Tips and Tricks

Visit the GDI+ FAQ