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's my code to find controls by Type while controlling how deep we go into the hierarchy (maxDepth == 0 means infinitely deep).

public static class FrameworkElementExtension
{
    public static object[] FindControls(
        this FrameworkElement f, Type childType, int maxDepth)
    {
        return RecursiveFindControls(f, childType, 1, maxDepth);
    }

    private static object[] RecursiveFindControls(
        object o, Type childType, int depth, int maxDepth = 0)
    {
        List<object> list = new List<object>();
        var attrs = o.GetType()
            .GetCustomAttributes(typeof(ContentPropertyAttribute), true);
        if (attrs != null && attrs.Length > 0)
        {
            string childrenProperty = (attrs[0] as ContentPropertyAttribute).Name;
            foreach (var c in (IEnumerable)o.GetType()
                .GetProperty(childrenProperty).GetValue(o, null))
            {
                if (c.GetType().FullName == childType.FullName)
                    list.Add(c);
                if (maxDepth == 0 || depth < maxDepth)
                    list.AddRange(RecursiveFindControls(
                        c, childType, depth + 1, maxDepth));
            }
        }
        return list.ToArray();
    }
}

Answer 2

You can also find an element by name using FrameworkElement.FindName(string).

Given:

<UserControl ...>
    <TextBlock x:Name="myTextBlock" />
</UserControl>

In the code-behind file, you could write:

var myTextBlock = (TextBlock)this.FindName("myTextBlock");

Of course, because it's defined using x:Name, you could just reference the generated field, but perhaps you want to look it up dynamically rather than statically.

This approach is also available for templates, in which the named item appears multiple times (once per usage of the template).

Answer 3

If you want to find ALL controls of a specific type, you might be interested in this snippet too

    public static IEnumerable<T> FindVisualChildren<T>(DependencyObject parent) 
        where T : DependencyObject
    {
        int childrenCount = VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(parent);
        for (int i = 0; i < childrenCount; i++)
        {
            var child = VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(parent, i);

            var childType = child as T;
            if (childType != null)
            {
                yield return (T)child;
            }

            foreach (var other in FindVisualChildren<T>(child))
            {
                yield return other;
            }
        }
    }

Answer 4

These options already talk about traversing the Visual Tree in C#. Its possible to traverse the visual tree in xaml as well using RelativeSource markup extension. msdn

find by type

Binding="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Mode=FindAncestor, AncestorType={x:Type <TypeToFind>}}}" 

Answer 5

Since the question is general enough that it might attract people looking for answers to very trivial cases: if you just want a child rather than a descendant, you can use Linq:

private void ItemsControlItem_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    if (SomeCondition())
    {
        var children = (sender as Panel).Children;
        var child = (from Control child in children
                 where child.Name == "NameTextBox"
                 select child).First();
        child.Focus();
    }
}

or of course the obvious for loop iterating over Children.

Answer 6

To find an ancestor of a given type from code, you can use:

[CanBeNull]
public static T FindAncestor<T>(DependencyObject d) where T : DependencyObject
{
    while (true)
    {
        d = VisualTreeHelper.GetParent(d);

        if (d == null)
            return null;

        var t = d as T;

        if (t != null)
            return t;
    }
}

This implementation uses iteration instead of recursion which can be slightly faster.

If you're using C# 7, this can be made slightly shorter:

[CanBeNull]
public static T FindAncestor<T>(DependencyObject d) where T : DependencyObject
{
    while (true)
    {
        d = VisualTreeHelper.GetParent(d);

        if (d == null)
            return null;

        if (d is T t)
            return t;
    }
}