MonthCalendar doesn't show on form C#

Question

I wan't to make a Class/function which must be able to show a calender at a given point on a form. And then return the selected date.

This is what I came up with:

public static string ShowCalendar(Point locatieCalender)
    {
        MonthCalendar calender = new MonthCalendar();
        calender.Location = locatieCalender;
        calender.Show();
        calender.Visible = true;

        string date = calender.SelectionRange.Start.ToShortDateString();
        DateTime dateValue = DateTime.Parse(date);
        string dateForTextbox = dateValue.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy");

        calender.Hide();
        return dateForTextbox;

       }

The problem is the calender won't show on the form.

I would appreciate some help with this. Thanks in advance

Ok Now I've changed my function to :

 public static string ShowCalendar(Point locatieCalender, Form F1)
    {
        MonthCalendar calender = new MonthCalendar();
        calender.Location = locatieCalender;
        calender.Show();
        calender.Visible = true;
        calender.BringToFront();
        calender.Parent = F1;
        string date = calender.SelectionRange.Start.ToShortDateString();
        DateTime dateValue = DateTime.Parse(date);

        string dateForTextbox = dateValue.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy");

        //calender.Hide();
        return dateForTextbox;

    }

And the function call:

string dateForTextbox = HelpFunction.ShowCalendar(calenderLocatie, this);

Now the calender shows but no string is returned. I've tried with event but because of the static function that won't work.

Answer 1

You need to add it to the form as a control. See this link for help on how to do that: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/kyt0fzt1.aspx

For instance:

Controls.Add(calendar);

Answer 2

Remove calender.Hide() in your code. And add it to your form through Controls.Add or Parent property, like this:

   //....
    string dateForTextbox = dateValue.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy");
    calender.Parent = yourForm;
    return dateForTextbox;
   }

I think you should declare a variable of MonthCalendar somewhere in your Form class, use it in your ShowCalendar instead of the local variable calendar.