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

Here is a solution that uses a flexible predicate:

public static DependencyObject FindChild(DependencyObject parent, Func predicate)
{
    if (parent == null) return null;

    int childrenCount = VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(parent);
    for (int i = 0; i < childrenCount; i++)
    {
        var child = VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(parent, i);

        if (predicate(child))
        {
            return child;
        }
        else
        {
            var foundChild = FindChild(child, predicate);
            if (foundChild != null)
                return foundChild;
        }
    }

    return null;
}

You can for example call it like this:

var child = FindChild(parent, child =>
{
    var textBlock = child as TextBlock;
    if (textBlock != null && textBlock.Name == "MyTextBlock")
        return true;
    else
        return false;
}) as TextBlock;