How can I find WPF controls by name or type?

Question

I need to search a WPF control hierarchy for controls that match a given name or type. How can I do this?

Answer 1

You can use the VisualTreeHelper to find controls. Below is a method that uses the VisualTreeHelper to find a parent control of a specified type. You can use the VisualTreeHelper to find controls in other ways as well.

public static class UIHelper
{
   /// 

   /// Finds a parent of a given item on the visual tree.
   /// 
   /// The type of the queried item.
   /// A direct or indirect child of the queried item.
   /// The first parent item that matches the submitted type parameter. 
   /// If not matching item can be found, a null reference is being returned.
   public static T FindVisualParent(DependencyObject child)
     where T : DependencyObject
   {
      // get parent item
      DependencyObject parentObject = VisualTreeHelper.GetParent(child);

      // we’ve reached the end of the tree
      if (parentObject == null) return null;

      // check if the parent matches the type we’re looking for
      T parent = parentObject as T;
      if (parent != null)
      {
         return parent;
      }
      else
      {
         // use recursion to proceed with next level
         return FindVisualParent(parentObject);
      }
   }
}

Call it like this:

Window owner = UIHelper.FindVisualParent(myControl);