Window Identifiers

Window identifiers are integers, and are used to uniquely determine window identity in the event system. In fact, identifiers do not need to be unique across your entire application, just unique within a particular context, such as a frame and its children. You may use the wxID_OK identifier, for example, on any number of dialogs as long as you don't have several within the same dialog.

If you pass wxID_ANY to a window constructor, an identifier will be generated for you automatically by wxWidgets. This is useful when you don't care about the exact identifier, either because you're not going to process the events from the control being created at all, or because you process the events from all controls in one place. In this case, you should specify wxID_ANY in the event table or wxEvtHandler::Connect call as well. The generated identifiers are always negative, so they will never conflict with the user-specified identifiers, which must always be positive.

wxWidgets supplies the standard identifiers listed in Table 3-1. Use the standard identifiers wherever possible: some systems can use the information to provide standard graphics (such as the OK and Cancel buttons on GTK+) or default behavior (such as responding to the Escape key by emulating a wxID_CANCEL event). On Mac OS X, wxID_ABOUT, wxID_PREFERENCES and wxID_EXIT menu items are interpreted specially and transferred to the application menu. Some wxWidgets components, such as wxTextCtrl, know how to handle menu items or buttons with identifiers such as wxID_COPY, wxID_PASTE, wxID_UNDO.

Table 3-1. Standard Window Identifiers

Identifier Name	Description
wxID_ANY	This may be passed to a window constructor as an identifier, and wxWidgets will generate an appropriate identifier
wxID_LOWEST	The lowest standard identifier value (4999)
wxID_HIGHEST	The highest standard identifier value (5999)
wxID_OPEN	File open
wxID_CLOSE	Window close
wxID_NEW	New window, file or document
wxID_SAVE	File save
wxID_SAVEAS	File save as (prompts for a save dialog)
wxID_REVERT	Revert (revert to file on disk)
wxID_EXIT	Exit application
wxID_UNDO	Undo the last operation
wxID_REDO	Redo the last undo
wxID_HELP	General help (for example, for dialog Help buttons)
wxID_PRINT	Print
wxID_PRINT_SETUP	Print setup dialog
wxID_PREVIEW	Print preview
wxID_ABOUT	Show a dialog describing the application
wxID_HELP_CONTENTS	Show the help contents
wxID_HELP_COMMANDS	Show the application commands
wxID_HELP_PROCEDURES	Show the application procedures
wxID_HELP_CONTEXT	Unused
wxID_CUT	Cut
wxID_COPY	Copy
wxID_PASTE	Paste
wxID_CLEAR	Clear
wxID_FIND	Find
wxID_DUPLICATE	Duplicate
wxID_SELECTALL	Select all
wxID_DELETE	Delete (cut without copying)
wxID_REPLACE	Replace
wxID_REPLACE_ALL	Replace all
wxID_PROPERTIES	Show properties for the selection
wxID_VIEW_DETAILS	View details in a list control
wxID_VIEW_LARGEICONS	View as large icons in a list control
wxID_VIEW_SMALLICONS	View as small icons in a list control
wxID_VIEW_LIST	View as a list in a list control
wxID_VIEW_SORTDATE	Sort by date
wxID_VIEW_SORTNAME	Sort by name
wxID_VIEW_SORTSIZE	Sort by size
wxID_VIEW_SORTTYPE	Sort by type
wxID_FILE1 to wxID_FILE9	View recent file
wxID_OK	Confirms dialog selections
wxID_CANCEL	Vetoes dialog selections
wxID_APPLY	Applies selections to data
wxID_YES	Identifier for a Yes button
wxID_NO	Identifier for a No button
wxID_STATIC	Identifier for static text or bitmap control
wxID_FORWARD	Navigate forward
wxID_BACKWARD	Navigate backward
wxID_DEFAULT	Restore default settings
wxID_MORE	View more settings
wxID_SETUP	View a setup dialog
wxID_RESET	Reset settings
wxID_CONTEXT_HELP	Show context-sensitive help
wxID_YESTOALL	Reply yes to all prompts
wxID_NOTOALL	Reply no to all prompts
wxID_ABORT	Abort the current operation
wxID_RETRY	Retry the operation
wxID_IGNORE	Ignore an error condition
wxID_UP	Navigate up
wxID_DOWN	Navigate down
wxID_HOME	Navigate home
wxID_REFRESH	Refresh
wxID_STOP	Stop the current operation
wxID_INDEX	Show an index
wxID_BOLD	Highlight in bold
wxID_ITALIC	Highlight in italic
wxID_JUSTIFY_CENTER	Center
wxID_JUSTIFY_FILL	Format
wxID_JUSTIFY_RIGHT	Right align
wxID_JUSTIFY_LEFT	Left align
wxID_UNDERLINE	Underline
wxID_INDENT	Indent
wxID_UNINDENT	Unindent
wxID_ZOOM_100	Zoom to 100%
wxID_ZOOM_FIT	Fit to page
wxID_ZOOM_IN	Zoom in
wxID_ZOOM_OUT	Zoom out
wxID_UNDELETE	Undelete
wxID_REVERT_TO_SAVED	Revert to saved state

You can use wxID_HIGHEST to determine the number above which it is safe to define your own identifiers, or you can use identifiers below wxID_LOWEST.