Control vs UserControl in WinForms?

.net winforms user-controls controls
Jon Tackabury picture Jon Tackabury · May 28, 2009 · Viewed 20k times · Source

What is the difference between a Control and a UserControl in .NET WinForms? I want to create a custom control, but which one should I inherit from? I've always used Control in the past without any issues, but is the "recommended" way of creating a custom control?

Answer

Billy picture Billy · May 28, 2009

Here is a good article about this question. user controls

However in short

A Control is either inherited or completely custom. You write and handle many of the events yourself. You can even control how and when the control is drawn thru the use of GDI+ drawing.

A UserControl is a collection of controls placed together to be used in a certain way. For example you can place a GroupBox that contains Textbox’s, Checkboxes, etc. This is useful when you have to place the same group of controls on/in multiple forms or tabs. Note: you can write some custom events and drawing for UserControls also.

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