Make which controls are visible in a Manipulate depend on a control value

Question

I want to make a simple demonstration using Manipulate in which I have one or two input fields show depending on whether or not another control is True or False. How can I achieve such functionality?

Manipulate["DoSomethig", {ShowMore, {True, False}}, WhatShouldBeHere?]

Answer 1

You can achieve this functionality by

Manipulate[{a, b, c}, Dynamic@Column@{
    Control[{a, 0}],
    Control[{ShowMore, {False, True}}],
    Sequence @@ If[ShowMore,
      {Control[{b, 0}],
       Control[{c, 0}]},
      {}]
    }]

This is similar to the link provided by m_goldberg, but it has a more compact form more suitable for this question.

Answer 2

b.gatessucks was faster than I, so he already wrote about DynamicModule, but I will publish this anyway as a complement. The answer you're really looking for might very well be found in this thread, and you can use ybeltukov's excellent answer.

This code can serve as a boilerplate for mimicking Manipulate.

Deploy@DynamicModule[{showMore = False, a = 1, b = 1},
  Panel[
   Column[{
     Dynamic@Grid[{
        {"Show more", Checkbox[Dynamic[showMore]]},
        {"a =", 
         InputField[Dynamic[a], Number, ContinuousAction -> True]},
        If[showMore,
         {"b =", 
          InputField[Dynamic[b], Number, ContinuousAction -> True]}, {}
         ]
        }, Alignment -> Left],
     Dynamic@Pane[
       Plot[a Sin[b x], {x, 0, 2 Pi}], 
       BaseStyle -> {Background -> White}
       ]
     }]]]

Answer 3

You can find good suggestions using Manipulate in the link provided by @m_goldberg. An alternative, also mentioned there, is to use DynamicModule; below is a starting point.

    DynamicModule[{showMore, a, b , c},
     Panel@With[{controlGenerate = Function[{var, initialValue, str, range, controlType}, 
                 Control[{{var, initialValue, str}, range, ControlType -> controlType}], HoldAll]},
      Column[{controlGenerate[showMore, False, "Show more", {False, True}, Checkbox], 
        Dynamic@If[showMore, 
                   {controlGenerate[b, Pi, "b", {}, InputField], 
                    controlGenerate[c, E, "c", {}, InputField]},  
                   {controlGenerate[a, Sqrt[2], "a", {}, InputField]}], 
        Dynamic@Sin[a], 
        Dynamic@Cos[b + c]}]
   ]
 ]

Answer 4

This is more of a comment on some of the other answers.

The problem with using If[test, display, (* else *) {}] type usage is that on its own it can lead to a lot of empty rows -- which we can see in other answers if a frame is added. e.g

So the way to fix this in your "openers" is to use Join since

Join[{{1, 2, 3}}, {}]
(* {{1, 2, 3}} *)

In other words Join removes the empty row giving you better design control of your layout.