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

This code just fixes @CrimsonX answer's bug:

 public static T FindChild(DependencyObject parent, string childName)
       where T : DependencyObject
    {    
      // Confirm parent and childName are valid. 
      if (parent == null) return null;

      T foundChild = null;

      int childrenCount = VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(parent);
      for (int i = 0; i < childrenCount; i++)
      {
        var child = VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(parent, i);
        // If the child is not of the request child type child
        T childType = child as T;
        if (childType == null)
        {
          // recursively drill down the tree
          foundChild = FindChild(child, childName);

          // If the child is found, break so we do not overwrite the found child. 
          if (foundChild != null) break;
        }
        else if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(childName))
        {
          var frameworkElement = child as FrameworkElement;
          // If the child's name is set for search
          if (frameworkElement != null && frameworkElement.Name == childName)
          {
            // if the child's name is of the request name
            foundChild = (T)child;
            break;
          }

 // recursively drill down the tree
          foundChild = FindChild(child, childName);

          // If the child is found, break so we do not overwrite the found child. 
          if (foundChild != null) break;


        else
        {
          // child element found.
          foundChild = (T)child;
          break;
        }
      }

      return foundChild;
    }  

You just need to continue calling the method recursively if types are matching but names don't (this happens when you pass FrameworkElement as T). otherwise it's gonna return null and that's wrong.