Possible to Create Array from Windows Form Objects?

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Hello, I’m trying to figure out if it’s possible to create a textBox array where-in I can save & load contents to/from an external .XML file.

Let me preface, I’m a novice. Programming is something I only dabble in periodically so my understanding of terminologies isn’t great, my code isn’t the best, and written examples would be appreciated if alternative solutions are a objectively better route.

To example what I’m trying to do, here is an example of what I have working:

callingFunction
{
    xml("Load")
}

private void xml(string input)
{
    int i = 0
    string[] export = { "tb1", "tb2", "tb3", "tb4" }

    XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();

    if (input == "Load")
    {
        xmlDoc.Load(./xml/settings.xml);
        XmlNodeList functionNodes = xmlDoc.SelectNodes("//settings/setting");

        foreach (XmlNode functionNode in functionNodes)
        {
            if (i == 0) { textBox1.Text = functionNode.Attributes["tb1"].Value; }
            else if (i == 1) { textBox2.Text = functionNode.Attributes["tb2"].Value; }
            else if (i == 2) { textBox3.Text = functionNode.Attributes["tb3"].Value; }
            else if (i == 3) { textBox4.Text = functionNode.Attributes["tb4"].Value; }
            i++
        }
    }

    else if (input == "Save")
    {
        XmlNode rootNode = xmlDoc.CreateElement("settings");
        xmlDoc.AppendChild(rootNode);

        foreach (string text in export)
        {
            XmlNode functionNode = xmlDoc.CreateElement("setting");
            XmlAttribute attribute = xmlDoc.CreateAttribute(text);

            if (i == 0) { attribute.Value = textBox1.Text; }
            else if (i == 1) { attribute.Value = textBox2.Text; }
            else if (i == 2) { attribute.Value = textBox3.Text; }
            else if (i == 3) { attribute.Value = textBox4.Text; }
            i++
        }

        xmlDoc.Save(./xml/settings.xml);
    }
}

Hopefully I wrote all of that out correctly.

So as I said this does work for both loading a profile and saving a profile but if I could I’d really like to step through the textBoxes like an array. For example:

foreach (XmlNode functionNode in functionNodes)
        {
            textBox[i].Text = functionNode.Attributes["tb" + i].Value;
            i++
        }

I did find some information I thought would aid me but I can’t figure out if I’m just wasting my time with it or if I’m writing it wrong:

TextBox[] textBox = { textBox1, textBox2, textBox3, textBox4 }

Then going into the foreach loop but this just throws a “Object reference not set to an instance of an object.” error.

I’m lost as to if what I’m trying to do here is even possible. I view it as trying to create a reverse array. Instead of an array of data values to assign to form objects I’m trying to create a array of form objects to push/pull data values to/from.

All thoughts and inputs are appreciated. I’ll take criticism so long as it’s constructive but I’ll need it to be explained in layman’s terms. I won’t understand talking in code.