How to remove all event handlers from an event

Question

To create a new event handler on a control you can do this

c.Click += new EventHandler(mainFormButton_Click);

or this

c.Cli         


        

Answer 1

Wow. I found this solution, but nothing worked like I wanted. But this is so good:

EventHandlerList listaEventos;

private void btnDetach_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    listaEventos = DetachEvents(comboBox1);
}

private void btnAttach_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    AttachEvents(comboBox1, listaEventos);
}

public EventHandlerList DetachEvents(Component obj)
{
    object objNew = obj.GetType().GetConstructor(new Type[] { }).Invoke(new object[] { });
    PropertyInfo propEvents = obj.GetType().GetProperty("Events", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);

    EventHandlerList eventHandlerList_obj = (EventHandlerList)propEvents.GetValue(obj, null);
    EventHandlerList eventHandlerList_objNew = (EventHandlerList)propEvents.GetValue(objNew, null);

    eventHandlerList_objNew.AddHandlers(eventHandlerList_obj);
    eventHandlerList_obj.Dispose();

    return eventHandlerList_objNew;
}

public void AttachEvents(Component obj, EventHandlerList eventos)
{
    PropertyInfo propEvents = obj.GetType().GetProperty("Events", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);

    EventHandlerList eventHandlerList_obj = (EventHandlerList)propEvents.GetValue(obj, null);

    eventHandlerList_obj.AddHandlers(eventos);
}

Answer 2

I found this answer and it almost fit my needs. Thanks to SwDevMan81 for the class. I have modified it to allow suppression and resumation of individual methods, and I thought I'd post it here.

// This class allows you to selectively suppress event handlers for controls.  You instantiate
// the suppressor object with the control, and after that you can use it to suppress all events
// or a single event.  If you try to suppress an event which has already been suppressed
// it will be ignored.  Same with resuming; you can resume all events which were suppressed,
// or a single one.  If you try to resume an un-suppressed event handler, it will be ignored.

//cEventSuppressor _supButton1 = null;
//private cEventSuppressor SupButton1 {
//    get {
//        if (_supButton1 == null) {
//            _supButton1 = new cEventSuppressor(this.button1);
//        }
//        return _supButton1;
//    }
//}
//private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
//    MessageBox.Show("Clicked!");
//}

//private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
//    SupButton1.Suppress("button1_Click");
//}

//private void button3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
//    SupButton1.Resume("button1_Click");
//}
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

using System.Reflection;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.ComponentModel;

namespace Crystal.Utilities {
    public class cEventSuppressor {
        Control _source;
        EventHandlerList _sourceEventHandlerList;
        FieldInfo _headFI;
        Dictionary<object, Delegate[]> suppressedHandlers = new Dictionary<object, Delegate[]>();
        PropertyInfo _sourceEventsInfo;
        Type _eventHandlerListType;
        Type _sourceType;

        public cEventSuppressor(Control control) {
            if (control == null)
                throw new ArgumentNullException("control", "An instance of a control must be provided.");

            _source = control;
            _sourceType = _source.GetType();
            _sourceEventsInfo = _sourceType.GetProperty("Events", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
            _sourceEventHandlerList = (EventHandlerList)_sourceEventsInfo.GetValue(_source, null);
            _eventHandlerListType = _sourceEventHandlerList.GetType();
            _headFI = _eventHandlerListType.GetField("head", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
        }
        private Dictionary<object, Delegate[]> BuildList() {
            Dictionary<object, Delegate[]> retval = new Dictionary<object, Delegate[]>();
            object head = _headFI.GetValue(_sourceEventHandlerList);
            if (head != null) {
                Type listEntryType = head.GetType();
                FieldInfo delegateFI = listEntryType.GetField("handler", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
                FieldInfo keyFI = listEntryType.GetField("key", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
                FieldInfo nextFI = listEntryType.GetField("next", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
                retval = BuildListWalk(retval, head, delegateFI, keyFI, nextFI);
            }
            return retval;
        }

        private Dictionary<object, Delegate[]> BuildListWalk(Dictionary<object, Delegate[]> dict,
                                    object entry, FieldInfo delegateFI, FieldInfo keyFI, FieldInfo nextFI) {
            if (entry != null) {
                Delegate dele = (Delegate)delegateFI.GetValue(entry);
                object key = keyFI.GetValue(entry);
                object next = nextFI.GetValue(entry);

                if (dele != null) {
                    Delegate[] listeners = dele.GetInvocationList();
                    if (listeners != null && listeners.Length > 0) {
                        dict.Add(key, listeners);
                    }
                }
                if (next != null) {
                    dict = BuildListWalk(dict, next, delegateFI, keyFI, nextFI);
                }
            }
            return dict;
        }
        public void Resume() {
        }
        public void Resume(string pMethodName) {
            //if (_handlers == null)
            //    throw new ApplicationException("Events have not been suppressed.");
            Dictionary<object, Delegate[]> toRemove = new Dictionary<object, Delegate[]>();

            // goes through all handlers which have been suppressed.  If we are resuming,
            // all handlers, or if we find the matching handler, add it back to the
            // control's event handlers
            foreach (KeyValuePair<object, Delegate[]> pair in suppressedHandlers) {

                for (int x = 0; x < pair.Value.Length; x++) {

                    string methodName = pair.Value[x].Method.Name;
                    if (pMethodName == null || methodName.Equals(pMethodName)) {
                        _sourceEventHandlerList.AddHandler(pair.Key, pair.Value[x]);
                        toRemove.Add(pair.Key, pair.Value);
                    }
                }
            }
            // remove all un-suppressed handlers from the list of suppressed handlers
            foreach (KeyValuePair<object, Delegate[]> pair in toRemove) {
                for (int x = 0; x < pair.Value.Length; x++) {
                    suppressedHandlers.Remove(pair.Key);
                }
            }
            //_handlers = null;
        }
        public void Suppress() {
            Suppress(null);
        }
        public void Suppress(string pMethodName) {
            //if (_handlers != null)
            //    throw new ApplicationException("Events are already being suppressed.");

            Dictionary<object, Delegate[]> dict = BuildList();

            foreach (KeyValuePair<object, Delegate[]> pair in dict) {
                for (int x = pair.Value.Length - 1; x >= 0; x--) {
                    //MethodInfo mi = pair.Value[x].Method;
                    //string s1 = mi.Name; // name of the method
                    //object o = pair.Value[x].Target;
                    // can use this to invoke method    pair.Value[x].DynamicInvoke
                    string methodName = pair.Value[x].Method.Name;

                    if (pMethodName == null || methodName.Equals(pMethodName)) {
                        _sourceEventHandlerList.RemoveHandler(pair.Key, pair.Value[x]);
                        suppressedHandlers.Add(pair.Key, pair.Value);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    } 
}

Answer 3

From Removing All Event Handlers:

Directly no, in large part because you cannot simply set the event to null.

Indirectly, you could make the actual event private and create a property around it that tracks all of the delegates being added/subtracted to it.

Take the following:

List<EventHandler> delegates = new List<EventHandler>();

private event EventHandler MyRealEvent;

public event EventHandler MyEvent
{
    add
    {
        MyRealEvent += value;
        delegates.Add(value);
    }

    remove
    {
        MyRealEvent -= value;
        delegates.Remove(value);
    }
}

public void RemoveAllEvents()
{
    foreach(EventHandler eh in delegates)
    {
        MyRealEvent -= eh;
    }
    delegates.Clear();
}

Answer 4

If you reaallly have to do this... it'll take reflection and quite some time to do this. Event handlers are managed in an event-to-delegate-map inside a control. You would need to

• Reflect and obtain this map in the control instance.
• Iterate for each event, get the delegate
  • each delegate in turn could be a chained series of event handlers. So call obControl.RemoveHandler(event, handler)

In short, a lot of work. It is possible in theory... I never tried something like this.

See if you can have better control/discipline over the subscribe-unsubscribe phase for the control.

Answer 5

I found another working solution by Douglas.

This method removes all event handlers which are set on a specific routet event on a element.
Use it like

Remove_RoutedEventHandlers(myImage, Image.MouseLeftButtonDownEvent);

Full code:

/// <summary>
/// Removes all event handlers subscribed to the specified routed event from the specified element.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="element">The UI element on which the routed event is defined.</param>
/// <param name="RoutetEvent_ToRemove">The routed event for which to remove the event handlers.</param>
public static void RemoveRoutedEventHandlers(UIElement UIElement_Target, RoutedEvent RoutetEvent_ToRemove)
{
    // Get the EventHandlersStore instance which holds event handlers for the specified element.
    // The EventHandlersStore class is declared as internal.
    PropertyInfo PropertyInfo_EventHandlersStore = typeof(UIElement).GetProperty(
        "EventHandlersStore", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
    object oEventHandlersStore = PropertyInfo_EventHandlersStore.GetValue(UIElement_Target, null);

    // If there's no event handler subscribed, return
    if (oEventHandlersStore == null) return;

    // Invoke the GetRoutedEventHandlers method on the EventHandlersStore instance 
    // for getting an array of the subscribed event handlers.
    MethodInfo MethodInfo_RoutedEventHandlers = oEventHandlersStore.GetType().GetMethod(
        "GetRoutedEventHandlers", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
    RoutedEventHandlerInfo[] RoutedEventHandlerInfos = (RoutedEventHandlerInfo[])MethodInfo_RoutedEventHandlers.Invoke(
        oEventHandlersStore, new object[] { RoutetEvent_ToRemove });

    // Iteratively remove all routed event handlers from the element.
    foreach (RoutedEventHandlerInfo RoutedEventHandlerInfo_Tmp in RoutedEventHandlerInfos)
        UIElement_Target.RemoveHandler(RoutetEvent_ToRemove, RoutedEventHandlerInfo_Tmp.Handler);
}

Answer 6

This page helped me a lot. The code I got from here was meant to remove a click event from a button. I need to remove double click events from some panels and click events from some buttons. So I made a control extension, which will remove all event handlers for a certain event.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Reflection;
public static class EventExtension
{
    public static void RemoveEvents<T>(this T target, string eventName) where T:Control
    {
        if (ReferenceEquals(target, null)) throw new NullReferenceException("Argument \"target\" may not be null.");
        FieldInfo fieldInfo = typeof(Control).GetField(eventName, BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
        if (ReferenceEquals(fieldInfo, null)) throw new ArgumentException(
            string.Concat("The control ", typeof(T).Name, " does not have a property with the name \"", eventName, "\""), nameof(eventName));
        object eventInstance = fieldInfo.GetValue(target);
        PropertyInfo propInfo = typeof(T).GetProperty("Events", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
        EventHandlerList list = (EventHandlerList)propInfo.GetValue(target, null);
        list.RemoveHandler(eventInstance, list[eventInstance]);
    }
}

Now, the usage of this extenstion. If you need to remove click events from a button,

Button button = new Button();
button.RemoveEvents(nameof(button.EventClick));

If you need to remove doubleclick events from a panel,

Panel panel = new Panel();
panel.RemoveEvents(nameof(panel.EventDoubleClick));

I am not an expert in C#, so if there are any bugs please forgive me and kindly let me know about it.