How to: Call a Button's Click Event Programmatically

Even if a user does not click a button, you can raise the button's Click event programmatically by using the PerformClick method. The following example demonstrates how to call the click event of a button within a program. When button2 is clicked, the click event for button1 is also triggered.

To use buttons in a program

1. On the File menu, click NewProject.

2. In the New Project dialog box, in the Templates pane, click Windows Forms Application, and then click OK.

   A new Windows Forms project opens.

3. From the Toolbox, drag two Button controls onto the form.

4. In the form, double-click the first button (button1) to create the Click event handler.

5. In the button1_Click event handler, type the following line of code.

   MessageBox.Show("button1.Click was raised.");
   

6. Right-click the code, and then click View Designer.

7. Double-click the second button (button2) to create the Click event handler.

8. In the button2_Click event handler, type the following line of code.

   // Call the Click event of button1.
   button1.PerformClick();
   

9. Press F5 to run the program.

10. The program starts and the form appears. When you click either button1 or button2, the click event handler of button1 displays a message.

See Also

Concepts

Designing a User Interface in Visual C#

Other Resources

Button Controls

Visual C# Guided Tour