Opening Multiple Instances of *Any* Form

[señor_sriracha]

Opening multiple instances of a form isn't a problem;

Dim frms As Collection

Public Function ShowForms(Optional closeForms As Boolean = False)
    Dim f As Form, i As Integer

    Set frms = New Collection
    
    If closeForms Then Exit Function


    For i = 0 To 3
        
        Set f = New Form_frmStar
        f.Visible = True
        
        frms.Add f
        
        Set f = Nothing
    Next i


End Function

But what if I want to pass in the name of the form so I can open multiple instances of *ANY* form?

Public Function ShowForms(formName as String, Optional closeForms As Boolean = False)

[CJ_London]

So far as I am aware this is not possible. Only way would be to use a case statement - something like

Select case formname
           case "frmStar"
                 Set f = New Form_frmStar
           case "frmMoon"
                 Set f = New Form_frmMoon
        end select

Edit - just a thought, I don't have time to experiment

1. create a class
2. pass the name of the form to the class
3. then use set f=new classname

[ranman256]

there shouldnt be any reason for 1 person to open the same form many times.

[Welshgasman]

there shouldnt be any reason for 1 person to open the same form many times.

I can think of a few.
Comparing one record to another.
Working on a new transaction, when halfway through another transaction, due to a new enquiry.

I work on Xero via a browser and cannot work on two companies at the same time
I have to use one in Chrome and another in Firefox. God help us if I had to work on another company.

[CJ_London]

God help us if I had to work on another company.

There is always Opera

[Edgar]

I've made "compare" features at some point. You press a button and it shows another form designed to make the comparison simple: It would show the current record on top and a list of relevant records below (with a search bar) and action buttons like "Use this value" or "Expand this record".

As for working with two records at the same time, I've solved that with a panel to the left with "Recent records", you would simply go from one to the other using that panel.

Shall the comparison be made between more than two records, I would make some form that lets the user select multiple records and visualize only the values they need, similar to what reports do.

I don't know, I share ranman's concern.

[señor_sriracha]

there shouldnt be any reason for 1 person to open the same form many times.

"640Kb should be enough for anyone."

Before anyone says it, I know Bill Gates never said this. It's more of a "Let them eat cake" type of remark.

[orange]

You may get some insight from this YT video by Juan Soto "how to duplicate forms in memory"

[señor_sriracha]

You may get some insight from this YT video by Juan Soto "how to duplicate forms in memory"

Thanks for the link to the video. Building a class to spawn the form is an interesting pattern.
It's very similar to the method I posted above, except instead of instantiating the form class directly, they've abstracted it by another layer. They instantiate the class that instantiates the form class. I suppose it's a shortcut to setup your visibility, caption, etc...

However, at 41:19 he states "keep in mind that you would have to have a different class for every form that you want to spawn."

That's not exactly the kind of reusability I was hoping for. Although it's more OOP than a complex conditional.