## Classes by category

A classification of wxWindows classes by category.

Managed windows

There are several types of window that are directly controlled by the window manager (such as MS Windows, or the Motif Window Manager). Frames may contain windows, and dialog boxes may directly contain controls.

wxDialog | Dialog box
wxFrame | Normal frame
wxMDIChildFrame | MDI child frame
wxMDIParentFrame | MDI parent frame
wxMiniFrame | A frame with a small title bar
wxSplashScreen | Splash screen class
wxTipWindow | Shows text in a small window
wxWizard | A wizard dialog

See also Common dialogs.

Miscellaneous windows

The following are a variety of classes that are derived from wxWindow.

wxPanel | A window whose colour changes according to current user settings
wxScrolledWindow | Window with automatically managed scrollbars
wxGrid | A grid (table) window
wxSplitterWindow | Window which can be split vertically or horizontally
wxStatusBar | Implements the status bar on a frame
wxToolBar | Toolbar class
wxNotebook | Notebook class
wxPlotWindow | A class to display data.
wxSashWindow | Window with four optional sashes that can be dragged
wxSashLayoutWindow | Window that can be involved in an IDE-like layout arrangement
wxWizardPage | A base class for the page in wizard dialog.
wxWizardPageSimple | A page in wizard dialog.

Common dialogs

Overview

Common dialogs are ready-made dialog classes which are frequently used in an application.

wxDialog | Base class for common dialogs
wxColourDialog | Colour chooser dialog
wxDirDialog | Directory selector dialog
wxFileDialog | File selector dialog
wxFindReplaceDialog | Text search/replace dialog
wxMultipleChoiceDialog | Dialog to get one or more selections from a list
wxSingleChoiceDialog | Dialog to get a single selection from a list and return the string
wxTextEntryDialog | Dialog to get a single line of text from the user
wxFontDialog | Font chooser dialog
wxPageSetupDialog | Standard page setup dialog
wxPrintDialog | Standard print dialog
wxPageSetupDialog | Standard page setup dialog
wxMessageDialog | Simple message box dialog
wxWizard | A wizard dialog.

Controls

Typically, these are small windows which provide interaction with the user. Controls that are not static can have validators associated with them.

wxControl | The base class for controls
wxButton | Push button control, displaying text
wxBitmapButton | Push button control, displaying a bitmap
wxToggleButton | A button which stays pressed when clicked by user.
wxCalendarCtrl | Date picker control
wxCheckBox | Checkbox control
wxCheckListBox | A listbox with a checkbox to the left of each item
wxChoice | Choice control (a combobox without the editable area)
wxComboBox | A choice with an editable area
wxGauge | A control to represent a varying quantity, such as time remaining
wxGenericDirCtrl | A control for displaying a directory tree
wxStaticBox | A static, or group box for visually grouping related controls
wxListBox | A list of strings for single or multiple selection
wxListCtrl | A control for displaying lists of strings and/or icons, plus a multicolumn report view
wxListView | A simpler interface (façade for wxListCtrl in report mode
wxTabCtrl | Manages several tabs
wxTextCtrl | Single or multiline text editing control
wxTreeCtrl | Tree (hierarchy) control
wxScrollBar | Scrollbar control
wxSpinButton | A spin or 'up-down' control
wxSpinCtrl | A spin control - i.e. spin button and text control
wxStaticText | One or more lines of non-editable text
wxStaticBitmap | A control to display a bitmap
wxRadioBox | A group of radio buttons
wxRadioButton | A round button to be used with others in a mutually exclusive way
wxSlider | A slider that can be dragged by the user

Menus

wxMenu | Displays a series of menu items for selection
wxMenuBar | Contains a series of menus for use with a frame
wxMenuItem | Represents a single menu item

Window layout

There are two different systems for laying out windows (and dialogs in particular). One is based upon so-called sizers and it requires less typing, thinking and calculating and will in almost all cases produce dialogs looking equally well on all platforms, the other is based on so-called constraints and is deprecated, though still available.

Sizer overview describes sizer-based layout.

These are the classes relevant to sizer-based layout.

wxSizer | Abstract base class
wxGridSizer | A sizer for laying out windows in a grid with all fields having the same size
wxFlexGridSizer | A sizer for laying out windows in a flexible grid
wxBoxSizer | A sizer for laying out windows in a row or column
wxStaticBoxSizer | Same as wxBoxSizer, but with a surrounding static box
wxNotebookSizer | Sizer to use with the wxNotebook control

Constraints overview describes constraints-based layout.

These are the classes relevant to constraints-based window layout.

wxIndividualLayoutConstraint | Represents a single constraint dimension
wxLayoutConstraints | Represents the constraints for a window class

Device contexts

Overview

Device contexts are surfaces that may be drawn on, and provide an abstraction that allows parameterisation of your drawing code by passing different device contexts.

wxClientDC | A device context to access the client area outside OnPaint events
wxPaintDC | A device context to access the client area inside OnPaint events
wxWindowDC | A device context to access the non-client area
wxScreenDC | A device context to access the entire screen
wxDC | The device context base class
wxMemoryDC | A device context for drawing into bitmaps
wxMetafileDC | A device context for drawing into metafiles
wxPostScriptDC | A device context for drawing into PostScript files
wxPrinterDC | A device context for drawing to printers

Graphics device interface

Bitmaps overview

These classes are related to drawing on device contexts and windows.

wxColour | Represents the red, blue and green elements of a colour
wxDCClipper | Wraps the operations of setting and destroying the clipping region
wxBitmap | Represents a bitmap
wxBrush | Used for filling areas on a device context
wxBrushList | The list of previously-created brushes
wxCursor | A small, transparent bitmap representing the cursor
wxFont | Represents fonts
wxFontList | The list of previously-created fonts
wxIcon | A small, transparent bitmap for assigning to frames and drawing on device contexts
wxImage | A platform-independent image class
wxImageList | A list of images, used with some controls
wxMask | Represents a mask to be used with a bitmap for transparent drawing
wxPen | Used for drawing lines on a device context
wxPenList | The list of previously-created pens
wxPalette | Represents a table of indices into RGB values
wxRegion | Represents a simple or complex region on a window or device context

Events

Overview

An event object contains information about a specific event. Event handlers (usually member functions) have a single, event argument.

wxActivateEvent | A window or application activation event
wxCalendarEvent | Used with wxCalendarCtrl
wxCalculateLayoutEvent | Used to calculate window layout
wxCloseEvent | A close window or end session event
wxCommandEvent | An event from a variety of standard controls
wxDialUpEvent | Event send by wxDialUpManager
wxDropFilesEvent | A drop files event
wxEraseEvent | An erase background event
wxEvent | The event base class
wxFindDialogEvent | Event sent by wxFindReplaceDialog
wxFocusEvent | A window focus event
wxKeyEvent | A keypress event
wxIconizeEvent | An iconize/restore event
wxIdleEvent | An idle event
wxInitDialogEvent | A dialog initialisation event
wxJoystickEvent | A joystick event
wxListEvent | A list control event
wxMaximizeEvent | A maximize event
wxMenuEvent | A menu event
wxMouseCaptureChangedEvent | A mouse capture changed event
wxMouseEvent | A mouse event
wxMoveEvent | A move event
wxNotebookEvent | A notebook control event
wxNotifyEvent | A notification event, which can be vetoed
wxPaintEvent | A paint event
wxProcessEvent | A process ending event
wxQueryLayoutInfoEvent | Used to query layout information
wxScrollEvent | A scroll event from sliders, stand-alone scrollbars and spin buttons
wxScrollWinEvent | A scroll event from scrolled windows
wxSizeEvent | A size event
wxSocketEvent | A socket event
wxSpinEvent | An event from wxSpinButton
wxSysColourChangedEvent | A system colour change event
wxTabEvent | A tab control event
wxTreeEvent | A tree control event
wxUpdateUIEvent | A user interface update event
wxWizardEvent | A wizard event

Validators

Overview

These are the window validators, used for filtering and validating user input.

wxValidator | Base validator class
wxTextValidator | Text control validator class
wxGenericValidator | Generic control validator class

Data structures

These are the data structure classes supported by wxWindows.

wxCmdLineParser | Command line parser class
wxDate | A class for date manipulation (deprecated in favour of wxDateTime)
wxDateSpan | A logical time interval.
wxDateTime | A class for date/time manipulations
wxExpr | A class for flexible I/O
wxExprDatabase | A class for flexible I/O
wxHashMap | A simple hash map implementation
wxHashTable | A simple hash table implementation (deprecated, use wxHashMap)
wxList | A simple linked list implementation
wxLongLong | A portable 64 bit integer type
wxNode | Represents a node in the wxList implementation
wxObject | The root class for most wxWindows classes
wxPathList | A class to help search multiple paths
wxPoint | Representation of a point
wxRect | A class representing a rectangle
wxRegEx | Regular expression support
wxRegion | A class representing a region
wxString | A string class
wxStringList | A class representing a list of strings
wxStringTokenizer | A class for interpreting a string as a list of tokens or words
wxRealPoint | Representation of a point using floating point numbers
wxSize | Representation of a size
wxTime | A class for time manipulation (deprecated in favour of wxDateTime)
wxTimeSpan | A time interval.
wxVariant | A class for storing arbitrary types that may change at run-time

Run-time class information system

Overview

wxWindows supports run-time manipulation of class information, and dynamic creation of objects given class names.

wxClassInfo | Holds run-time class information
wxObject | Root class for classes with run-time information
RTTI macros | Macros for manipulating run-time information

Debugging features

Overview

wxWindows provides several classes and functions for the message logging. Please see the wxLog overview for more details.

wxLog | The base log class
wxLogStderr | Log messages to a C STDIO stream
wxLogStream | Log messages to a C++ iostream
wxLogTextCtrl | Log messages to a wxTextCtrl
wxLogWindow | Log messages to a log frame
wxLogGui | Default log target for GUI programs
wxLogNull | Temporarily suppress message logging
wxLogChain | Allows to chain two log targets
wxLogPassThrough | Allows to filter the log messages
wxStreamToTextRedirector | Allows to redirect output sent to `cout` to a wxTextCtrl
Log functions | Error and warning logging functions

Debugging features

Overview

wxWindows supports some aspects of debugging an application through classes, functions and macros.

wxDebugContext | Provides memory-checking facilities
Debugging macros | Debug macros for assertion and checking
WXDEBUG_NEW | Use this macro to give further debugging information

Networking classes

wxWindows provides its own classes for socket based networking.

wxDialUpManager | Provides functions to check the status of network connection and to establish one
wxIPV4address | Represents an Internet address
wxSocketBase | Represents a socket base object
wxSocketClient | Represents a socket client
wxSocketServer | Represents a socket server
wxSocketEvent | A socket event
wxFTP | FTP protocol class
wxHTTP | HTTP protocol class
wxURL | Represents a Universal Resource Locator

Interprocess communication

Overview

wxWindows provides simple interprocess communications facilities based on Windows DDE, but available on most platforms using TCP.

wxClient | Represents a client
wxConnection | Represents the connection between a client and a server
wxServer | Represents a server

Document/view framework

Overview

wxWindows supports a document/view framework which provides housekeeping for a document-centric application.

wxDocument | Represents a document
wxView | Represents a view
wxDocTemplate | Manages the relationship between a document class and a view class
wxDocManager | Manages the documents and views in an application
wxDocChildFrame | A child frame for showing a document view
wxDocParentFrame | A parent frame to contain views

Printing framework

Overview

A printing and previewing framework is implemented to make it relatively straightforward to provide document printing facilities.

wxPreviewFrame | Frame for displaying a print preview
wxPreviewCanvas | Canvas for displaying a print preview
wxPreviewControlBar | Standard control bar for a print preview
wxPrintDialog | Standard print dialog
wxPageSetupDialog | Standard page setup dialog
wxPrinter | Class representing the printer
wxPrinterDC | Printer device context
wxPrintout | Class representing a particular printout
wxPrintPreview | Class representing a print preview
wxPrintData | Represents information about the document being printed
wxPrintDialogData | Represents information about the print dialog
wxPageSetupDialogData | Represents information about the page setup dialog

Drag and drop and clipboard classes

Drag and drop and clipboard overview

wxDataObject | Data object class
wxDataFormat | Represents a data format
wxTextDataObject | Text data object class
wxFileDataObject | File data object class
wxBitmapDataObject | Bitmap data object class
wxCustomDataObject | Custom data object class
wxClipboard | Clipboard class
wxDropTarget | Drop target class
wxFileDropTarget | File drop target class
wxTextDropTarget | Text drop target class
wxDropSource | Drop source class

File related classes

wxWindows has several small classes to work with disk files, see file classes overview for more details.

wxFileName | Operations with the file name and attributes
wxDir | Class for enumerating files/subdirectories.
wxDirTraverser | Class used together with wxDir for recursively enumerating the files/subdirectories
wxFile | Low-level file input/output class.
wxFFile | Another low-level file input/output class.
wxTempFile | Class to safely replace an existing file
wxTextFile | Class for working with text files as with arrays of lines

Stream classes

wxWindows has its own set of stream classes, as an alternative to often buggy standard stream libraries, and to provide enhanced functionality.

wxStreamBase | Stream base class
wxStreamBuffer | Stream buffer class
wxInputStream | Input stream class
wxOutputStream | Output stream class
wxCountingOutputStream | Stream class for querying what size a stream would have.
wxFilterInputStream | Filtered input stream class
wxFilterOutputStream | Filtered output stream class
wxBufferedInputStream | Buffered input stream class
wxBufferedOutputStream | Buffered output stream class
wxMemoryInputStream | Memory input stream class
wxMemoryOutputStream | Memory output stream class
wxDataInputStream | Platform-independent binary data input stream class
wxDataOutputStream | Platform-independent binary data output stream class
wxTextInputStream | Platform-independent text data input stream class
wxTextOutputStream | Platform-independent text data output stream class
wxFileInputStream | File input stream class
wxFileOutputStream | File output stream class
wxFFileInputStream | Another file input stream class
wxFFileOutputStream | Another file output stream class
wxZlibInputStream | Zlib (compression) input stream class
wxZlibOutputStream | Zlib (compression) output stream class
wxZipInputStream | Input stream for reading from ZIP archives
wxSocketInputStream | Socket input stream class
wxSocketOutputStream | Socket output stream class

Threading classes

Multithreading overview

wxWindows provides a set of classes to make use of the native thread capabilities of the various platforms.

wxThread | Thread class
wxMutex | Mutex class
wxMutexLocker | Mutex locker utility class
wxCriticalSection | Critical section class
wxCriticalSectionLocker | Critical section locker utility class
wxCondition | Condition class
wxSemaphore | Semaphore class

HTML classes

wxWindows provides a set of classes to display text in HTML format. These class include a help system based on the HTML widget.

wxHtmlHelpController | HTML help controller class
wxHtmlWindow | HTML window class
wxHtmlEasyPrinting | Simple class for printing HTML
wxHtmlPrintout | Generic HTML wxPrintout class
wxHtmlParser | Generic HTML parser class
wxHtmlTagHandler | HTML tag handler, pluginable into wxHtmlParser
wxHtmlWinParser | HTML parser class for wxHtmlWindow
wxHtmlWinTagHandler | HTML tag handler, pluginable into wxHtmlWinParser

Virtual file system classes

wxWindows provides a set of classes that implement an extensible virtual file system, used internally by the HTML classes.

wxFSFile | Represents a file in the virtual file system
wxFileSystem | Main interface for the virtual file system
wxFileSystemHandler | Class used to announce file system type

XML-based resource system classes

XML-based resource system overview

Resources allow your application to create controls and other user interface elements from specifications stored in an XML format.

wxXmlResource | The main class for working with resources.
wxXmlResourceHandler | The base class for XML resource handlers.

Online help

wxHelpController | Family of classes for controlling help windows
wxHtmlHelpController | HTML help controller class
wxContextHelp | Class to put application into context-sensitive help mode
wxContextHelpButton | Button class for putting application into context-sensitive help mode
wxHelpProvider | Abstract class for context-sensitive help provision
wxSimpleHelpProvider | Class for simple context-sensitive help provision
wxHelpControllerHelpProvider | Class for context-sensitive help provision via a help controller
wxToolTip | Class implementing tooltips

Database classes

Database classes overview

wxWindows provides two alternative sets of classes for accessing Microsoft's ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) product. The new version by Remstar, known as wxODBC, is more powerful, portable, flexible and better supported, so please use the classes below for working with databases:

wxDb | ODBC database connection
wxDbTable | Provides access to a database table
wxDbInf |
wxDbTableInf |
wxDbColDef |
wxDbColInf |
wxDbColDataPtr |
wxDbColFor |
wxDbConnectInf |
wxDbIdxDef |

The documentation for the older classes is still included, but you should avoid using any of them in new programs:

wxDatabase | Database class
wxQueryCol | Class representing a column
wxQueryField | Class representing a field
wxRecordSet | Class representing one or more record

Miscellaneous

wxApp | Application class
wxCaret | A caret (cursor) object
wxCmdLineParser | Command line parser class
wxConfig | Classes for configuration reading/writing (using either INI files or registry)
wxDllLoader | Class to work with shared libraries.
wxLayoutAlgorithm | An alternative window layout facility
wxProcess | Process class
wxTimer | Timer class
wxStopWatch | Stop watch class
wxMimeTypesManager | MIME-types manager class
wxSystemSettings | System settings class for obtaining various global parameters
wxSystemOptions | System options class for run-time configuration
wxAcceleratorTable | Accelerator table
wxAutomationObject | OLE automation class
wxFontMapper | Font mapping, finding suitable font for given encoding
wxEncodingConverter | Encoding conversions
wxCalendarDateAttr | Used with wxCalendarCtrl
wxQuantize | Class to perform quantization, or colour reduction
wxSingleInstanceChecker | Check that only single program instance is running