Color different parts of a RichTextBox string
I'm trying to color parts of a string to be appended to a RichTextBox. I have a string built from different strings.
string temp = "[" + DateTime.Now.ToShortTimeString() + "] " +
userid + " " + message + Environment.NewLine;
This is what the message would look like once it is constructed.
[9:23pm] User: my message here.
I want everything within and including the brackets [9:23] to be one color, 'user' to be another color and the message to be another color. Then I'd like the string appended to my RichTextBox.
How can I accomplish this?
Here is an extension method that overloads the AppendText
method with a color parameter:
public static class RichTextBoxExtensions
{
public static void AppendText(this RichTextBox box, string text, Color color)
{
box.SelectionStart = box.TextLength;
box.SelectionLength = 0;
box.SelectionColor = color;
box.AppendText(text);
box.SelectionColor = box.ForeColor;
}
}
And this is how you would use it:
var userid = "USER0001";
var message = "Access denied";
var box = new RichTextBox
{
Dock = DockStyle.Fill,
Font = new Font("Courier New", 10)
};
box.AppendText("[" + DateTime.Now.ToShortTimeString() + "]", Color.Red);
box.AppendText(" ");
box.AppendText(userid, Color.Green);
box.AppendText(": ");
box.AppendText(message, Color.Blue);
box.AppendText(Environment.NewLine);
new Form {Controls = {box}}.ShowDialog();
Note that you may notice some flickering if you're outputting a lot of messages. See this C# Corner article for ideas on how to reduce RichTextBox flicker.
I have expanded the method with font as a parameter:
public static void AppendText(this RichTextBox box, string text, Color color, Font font)
{
box.SelectionStart = box.TextLength;
box.SelectionLength = 0;
box.SelectionColor = color;
box.SelectionFont = font;
box.AppendText(text);
box.SelectionColor = box.ForeColor;
}