Finding a control within a TabControl

Question

All,

I am attempting to find a control by name within a TabControl. However my current method does not drop down to the children of the control. What is the best way to do this

Control control = m_TabControlBasicItems.Controls[controlName];

control is alway null because it is two (or three) levels below. TabPage, GroupBox, and sometimes Panel in the case of radioButtons

Thank You!

Answer 1

You need to recurse through all of the controls to find the right one.

Here is a perfect example for you. You should be able to copy and paste and call it w/o mods.

Pasting the code snippet in case the link dies:

/// <summary>
/// Finds a Control recursively. Note finds the first match and exists
/// </summary>
/// <param name="container">The container to search for the control passed. Remember
/// all controls (Panel, GroupBox, Form, etc are all containsers for controls
/// </param>
/// <param name="name">Name of the control to look for</param>
public Control FindControlRecursive(Control container, string name)
{
    if (container == name) return container;

    foreach (Control ctrl in container.Controls)
    {
        Control foundCtrl = FindControlRecursive(ctrl, name);

        if (foundCtrl != null) return foundCtrl;
    }

    return null;
}

Answer 2

.NET does not expose a way to search for nested controls. You have to implement a recursive search by yourself.

Here's an example:

public class MyUtility
    {
        public static Control FindControl(string id, ControlCollection col)
        {
            foreach (Control c in col)
            {
                Control child = FindControlRecursive(c, id);
                if (child != null)
                    return child;
            }
            return null;
        }

        private static Control FindControlRecursive(Control root, string id)
        {
            if (root.ID != null && root.ID == id)
                return root;

            foreach (Control c in root.Controls)
            {
                Control rc = FindControlRecursive(c, id);
                if (rc != null)
                    return rc;
            }
            return null;
        }
    }