Using C# to Recursively Call FindControl in ASP.Net

29th January 2010

By Tim Trott

In ASP.Net I often need to use the recursively use FindControl to get an object reference to a control on the ASPX page. The only problem with this is that you need to know the control that it is contained with. This recursive method will search for a given control within a parent control and all it's child controls.

public static Control FindControlRecursive(Control container, string name)
{
    if ((container.ID != null) && (container.ID.Equals(name)))
        return container;

    foreach (Control ctrl in container.Controls)
    {
        Control foundCtrl = FindControlRecursive(ctrl, name);
        if (foundCtrl != null)
            return foundCtrl;
    }
    return null;
}

Usage

You need to pass in two parameters, a reference to a control to look in and the name of the control to find.

Example:

Control myControl = FindControlRecursive(PlaceHolder1, "myControl");

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About the Author

Tim Trott

Tim Trott is a creative photographer, traveller, astronomer and software engineer with a passion for self-growth and a desire for personal challenge. Follow Tim on these networks:

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2 thoughts on “Using C# to Recursively Call FindControl in ASP.Net”

Tigrou
5th June 2012 at 12:00 am
@roy : your function is nice but return type should be T instead of Control, otherwise using templates is pretty useless....
private T GetControl<T>(Control Container, string ControlID) where T : Control
Reply
Roy
19th December 2011 at 12:00 am
Good post. This is the one we use.
<code>
private Control GetControl<T>(Control Container, string ControlID) where T : Control
{
T result = Container.FindControl(ControlID) as T;
if (result == null)
{
foreach (Control c in Container.Controls)
{
result = this.GetControl<T>(c, ControlID) as T;
if (result != null)
{
break;
}
}
}
return result;
}
</code>
Reply

Using C# to Recursively Call FindControl in ASP.Net

Usage

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