Get a Windows Forms control by name in C#

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I have a ToolStripMenuItem called myMenu. How can I access this like so:

/* Normally, I would do: */
this.myMenu... etc.

/* But how do I access it like this: */
String name = myMenu;
this.name...

This is because I am dynamically generating ToolStripMenuItems from an XML file and need to reference MenuItems by their dynamically generated names.

accessibility controls winforms string c#
14 Answers

Using the same approach of Philip Wallace, we can do like this:

    public Control GetControlByName(Control ParentCntl, string NameToSearch)
    {
        if (ParentCntl.Name == NameToSearch)
            return ParentCntl;

        foreach (Control ChildCntl in ParentCntl.Controls)
        {
            Control ResultCntl = GetControlByName(ChildCntl, NameToSearch);
            if (ResultCntl != null)
                return ResultCntl;
        }
        return null;
    }

Example:

    public void doSomething() 
    {
            TextBox myTextBox = (TextBox) this.GetControlByName(this, "mytextboxname");
            myTextBox.Text = "Hello!";
    }

I hope it help! :)

user_13303230

You can use find function in your Form class. If you want to cast (Label) ,(TextView) ... etc, in this way you can use special features of objects. It will be return Label object.

(Label)this.Controls.Find(name,true)[0];

name: item name of searched item in the form

true: Search all Children boolean value

user_31298220
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