Label text doesn't get updated until the whole loop is completed

Question

I have a Winform program that does some calculations when the user clicks on a button and then calls the picturebox paint event to draw a new BMP based on the results of the calculations. This works fine.

Now I want to do this 100 times and every time the picturebox is refreshed, I want to see the iteration that it's currently in by updating the text on a label as per below:

 private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {

        for (int iterations = 1; iterations <= 100; iterations++)
        {
            // do some calculations to change the cellmap parameters
            cellMap.Calculate();

            // Refresh picturebox1
            pictureBox1.Invalidate();
            pictureBox1.Update();

            // Update label with the current iteration number
            label1.Text = iterations.ToString();
        }
    }

    private void pictureBox1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
    {

        Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(cellMap.Dimensions.Width, cellMap.Dimensions.Height);
        Graphics gBmp = Graphics.FromImage(bmp);

        int rectWidth = scaleFactor;
        int rectHeight = scaleFactor;

         // Create solid brushes
        Brush blueBrush = new SolidBrush(Color.Blue);
        Brush greenBrush = new SolidBrush(Color.Green);
        Brush transparentBrush = new SolidBrush(Color.Transparent);

        Graphics g = e.Graphics;

        for (int i = 0; i < cellMap.Dimensions.Width; i++)
        {
                for (int j = 0; j < cellMap.Dimensions.Height; j++)
                {
                    // retrieve the rectangle and draw it
                    Brush whichBrush;

                    if (cellMap.GetCell(i, j).CurrentState == CellState.State1)
                    {
                        whichBrush = blueBrush;
                    }
                    else if (cellMap.GetCell(i, j).CurrentState == CellState.State2)
                    {
                        whichBrush = greenBrush;
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        whichBrush = transparentBrush;
                    }

                    // draw rectangle to bmp
                    gBmp.FillRectangle(whichBrush, i, j, 1f, 1f);
                }
         }

         g.InterpolationMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.InterpolationMode.NearestNeighbor;
         g.DrawImage(bmp, 0, 0, pictureBox1.Width, pictureBox1.Height);
    }

The problem I am having is that the label text only gets displayed after the last picturebox update is completed. So essentially, it does not display 1 through to 99. I can see the picturebox updates after every refresh as the BMP changes with every iteration. Any idea?

Answer 1

// Code fragement...
// 5 cent solution, add Invalidate/Update
label1.Text = iterations.ToString();
label1.Invalidate();
label1.Update();