`LinkLabel`

The LinkLabel control provides hyperlinks similar to those on web pages. This control has some complexities—it must be initialized in C# code.

Please add a new LinkLabel control to your Windows Form. Next, you can right-click on the LinkLabel and adjust some of its properties.

Example code

To implement the functionality in this example, you need to create a Load event, which you can do by double-clicking on the enclosing form.

Then Double-click on the LinkLabel instance to create the LinkClicked event handler.

Info The Form1_Load method is executed when the program begins. At this stage, we create a new Link element.

Tip Link elements are stored in the Links collection on a LinkLabel instance. We call the Add method to store the LinkLabel.

Detail The LinkData reference is of an object type—you can store anything there and use it through casting.

Detail We store a string in the location. In LinkClicked, we then access the Link.LinkData from the parameter "e" and cast it.

using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WindowsFormsApplication13
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void Form1_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
        {
            // Add a link to the LinkLabel.
            LinkLabel.Link link = new LinkLabel.Link();
            link.LinkData = "http://www.dotnetperls.com/";
            linkLabel1.Links.Add(link);
        }

        private void linkLabel1_LinkClicked(object sender, LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs e)
        {
            // Send the URL to the operating system.
            Process.Start(e.Link.LinkData as string);
        }
    }
}

Text

The Text property on the LinkLabel determines what text will be shown. This is a property that you will want to set every time you add a new LinkLabel.

Tip Using the Links collection, you can create multiple links in the same text.

Also You can adjust the LinkLabel's link colors. The active color is used when the user is actively clicking on a link.

Multiple links

As noted, you can have multiple links in the same LinkLabel. This results in 2 clickable links. To do this, add Link objects to the LinkLabel in the Load event.

Tip You should specify the lexical position of the links. We do this by specifying the index of the start and the length in characters.

Then In LinkClicked, you can acquire the LinkData from the clicked link in the same way as in the example shown.

The LinkLabel can be used to launch a web browser. The Links collection is confusing at first but once the concept of multiple links per LinkLabel is understood, it is clear.