C# Label Text Not Updating

Question

I have the following code:

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
  var answer =
    MessageBox.Show(
      "Do you wish to submit checked items to the ACH bank? \r\n\r\nOnly the items that are checked and have the status 'Entered' will be submitted.",
      "Submit",
      MessageBoxButtons.YesNoCancel, MessageBoxIcon.Question,
      MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button1);

  if (answer != DialogResult.Yes)
    return;

  button1.Enabled = false;
  progressBar1.Maximum = dataGridView1.Rows.Count;
  progressBar1.Minimum = 0;
  progressBar1.Value = 0;
  progressBar1.Step = 1;

  foreach (DataGridViewRow row in dataGridView1.Rows)
  {
    if ((string) row.Cells["Status"].Value == "Entered")
    {
      progressBar1.PerformStep();

      label_Message.Text = @"Sending " + row.Cells["Name"].Value + @" for $" + row.Cells["CheckAmount"].Value + @" to the bank.";
      Thread.Sleep(2000);
    }
  }
  label_Message.Text = @"Complete.";
  button1.Enabled = true;
}

This is a test I am creating to port over to my application. Everything works fine but the label_Message.text being set. It never shows up on the screen. It is being set, I did a console.write on it to verify. It's just not refreshing the screen. I get the "Complete" at the end also.

Anyone have any ideas?

Answer 1

You're performing a lengthy operation on the UI thread. You should move it to a background thread (via BackgroundWorker for instance) so the UI thread can do things like repaint the screen when needed. You can cheat and execute Application.DoEvents, but I'd really recommend against it.

This question and answer are basically what you're asking:
Form Not Responding when any other operation performed in C#