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How to get object reference dynamically by name? [duplicate]

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.

Use the Control.ControlCollection.Find method.
Try this:
this.Controls.Find()

string name = "the_name_you_know";
Control ctn = this.Controls[name];
ctn.Text = "Example...";

Assuming you have the menuStrip object and the menu is only one level deep, use:
ToolStripMenuItem item = menuStrip.Items
.OfType<ToolStripMenuItem>()
.SelectMany(it => it.DropDownItems.OfType<ToolStripMenuItem>())
.SingleOrDefault(n => n.Name == "MyMenu");
For deeper menu levels add more SelectMany operators in the statement.
if you want to search all menu items in the strip then use
ToolStripMenuItem item = menuStrip.Items
.Find("MyMenu",true)
.OfType<ToolStripMenuItem>()
.Single();
However, make sure each menu has a different name to avoid exception thrown by key duplicates.
To avoid exceptions you could use FirstOrDefault instead of SingleOrDefault / Single, or just return a sequence if you might have Name duplicates.

Control GetControlByName(string Name)
{
foreach(Control c in this.Controls)
if(c.Name == Name)
return c;
return null;
}
Disregard this, I reinvent wheels.

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! :)

this.Controls.Find(name, searchAllChildren) doesn't find ToolStripItem because ToolStripItem is not a Control
using SWF = System.Windows.Forms;
using NUF = NUnit.Framework;
namespace workshop.findControlTest {
[NUF.TestFixture]
public class FormTest {
[NUF.Test]public void Find_menu() {
// == prepare ==
var fileTool = new SWF.ToolStripMenuItem();
fileTool.Name = "fileTool";
fileTool.Text = "File";
var menuStrip = new SWF.MenuStrip();
menuStrip.Items.Add(fileTool);
var form = new SWF.Form();
form.Controls.Add(menuStrip);
// == execute ==
var ctrl = form.Controls.Find("fileTool", true);
// == not found! ==
NUF.Assert.That(ctrl.Length, NUF.Is.EqualTo(0));
}
}
}

One of the best way is a single row of code like this:
In this example we search all PictureBox by name in a form
PictureBox[] picSample =
(PictureBox)this.Controls.Find(PIC_SAMPLE_NAME, true);
Most important is the second paramenter of find.
if you are certain that the control name exists you can directly use it:
PictureBox picSample =
(PictureBox)this.Controls.Find(PIC_SAMPLE_NAME, true)[0];

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

this.Controls["name"];
This is the actual code that is ran:
public virtual Control this[string key]
{
get
{
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(key))
{
int index = this.IndexOfKey(key);
if (this.IsValidIndex(index))
{
return this[index];
}
}
return null;
}
}
vs:
public Control[] Find(string key, bool searchAllChildren)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(key))
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("key", SR.GetString("FindKeyMayNotBeEmptyOrNull"));
}
ArrayList list = this.FindInternal(key, searchAllChildren, this, new ArrayList());
Control[] array = new Control[list.Count];
list.CopyTo(array, 0);
return array;
}
private ArrayList FindInternal(string key, bool searchAllChildren, Control.ControlCollection controlsToLookIn, ArrayList foundControls)
{
if ((controlsToLookIn == null) || (foundControls == null))
{
return null;
}
try
{
for (int i = 0; i < controlsToLookIn.Count; i++)
{
if ((controlsToLookIn[i] != null) && WindowsFormsUtils.SafeCompareStrings(controlsToLookIn[i].Name, key, true))
{
foundControls.Add(controlsToLookIn[i]);
}
}
if (!searchAllChildren)
{
return foundControls;
}
for (int j = 0; j < controlsToLookIn.Count; j++)
{
if (((controlsToLookIn[j] != null) && (controlsToLookIn[j].Controls != null)) && (controlsToLookIn[j].Controls.Count > 0))
{
foundControls = this.FindInternal(key, searchAllChildren, controlsToLookIn[j].Controls, foundControls);
}
}
}
catch (Exception exception)
{
if (ClientUtils.IsSecurityOrCriticalException(exception))
{
throw;
}
}
return foundControls;
}

Assuming you have Windows.Form Form1 as the parent form which owns the menu you've created. One of the form's attributes is named .Menu. If the menu was created programmatically, it should be the same, and it would be recognized as a menu and placed in the Menu attribute of the Form.
In this case, I had a main menu called File. A sub menu, called a MenuItem under File contained the tag Open and was named menu_File_Open. The following worked. Assuming you
// So you don't have to fully reference the objects.
using System.Windows.Forms;
// More stuff before the real code line, but irrelevant to this discussion.
MenuItem my_menuItem = (MenuItem)Form1.Menu.MenuItems["menu_File_Open"];
// Now you can do what you like with my_menuItem;

Since you're generating them dynamically, keep a map between a string and the menu item, that will allow fast retrieval.
// in class scope
private readonly Dictionary<string, ToolStripMenuItem> _menuItemsByName = new Dictionary<string, ToolStripMenuItem>();
// in your method creating items
ToolStripMenuItem createdItem = ...
_menuItemsByName.Add("<name here>", createdItem);
// to access it
ToolStripMenuItem menuItem = _menuItemsByName["<name here>"];

Have a look at the ToolStrip.Items collection. It even has a find method available.

You can do the following:
private ToolStripMenuItem getToolStripMenuItemByName(string nameParam)
{
foreach (Control ctn in this.Controls)
{
if (ctn is ToolStripMenuItem)
{
if (ctn.Name = nameParam)
{
return ctn;
}
}
}
return null;
}

A simple solution would be to iterate through the Controls list in a foreach loop. Something like this:
foreach (Control child in Controls)
{
// Code that executes for each control.
}
So now you have your iterator, child, which is of type Control. Now do what you will with that, personally I found this in a project I did a while ago in which it added an event for this control, like this:
child.MouseDown += new MouseEventHandler(dragDown);

Check which Controls have Borders c#

I am making a Winforms application. Because I want to redraw some borders I want to loop through the controls and check which controls have a border. Unfortunately I have no idea how to accomplish this.
I know panels and textboxes, etc. have a property BorderStyle but I can not access it while looping through Controls. I use the function from this link : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.windows.forms.control.controls?view=netframework-4.8 , to loop through the controls.

If you have a panel you can foreach on the panel. I use form load as an event
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
foreach (var item in this.Controls)
{
switch (item.GetType().Name)
{
case "Label":
if (((Label)item).BorderStyle == BorderStyle.None)
{
//Your commands
}
break;
case "TextBox":
if (((TextBox)item).BorderStyle == BorderStyle.None)
{
//Your commands
}
break;
}
}
}
Or you can check them dynamic
I recommend you to use the dynamic way.
in this way, your app wouldn't encounter exceptions or errors
foreach (var item in this.Controls)
{
//Get item from form
dynamic element = item;
//check if there is any property called Borderstyle exists
var res = item.GetType().GetProperties().Where(p => p.Name.Equals("BorderStyle")).FirstOrDefault();
//if it exists and value is not equal None(Control have border)
if (res !=null && !(res.GetValue(item).Equals("None")))
{
res.SetValue(item, BorderStyle.FixedSingle, null);
//your other commands
}
}

You could use a foreach for every type of control you use (TextBox, Label, etc.)
var controlsWithoutBorders = new List<Control>();
// Check textboxes
foreach (var control in controls.OfType<TextBox>())
{
if (control.BorderStyle != BorderStyle.None)
{
controlsWithoutBorders.Add(control);
}
}
//Check labels
foreach (var control in controls.OfType<Label>())
{
if (control.BorderStyle != BorderStyle.None)
{
controlsWithoutBorders.Add(control);
}
}
Alternatively, you could use a single foreach on all the controls, and try to cast the control to each type. The cast will be successful if the control is actually what you want to cast it to, otherwise it will return null (e.g. trying to cast a Control that is a TextBox to a Label will return null)
var controlsWithoutBorders = new List<Control>();
foreach (var control in controls)
{
var controlAsTextBox = control as TextBox;
var controlAsLabel = control as Label;
if (controlAsTextBox != null && controlAsTextBox.BorderStyle != BorderStyle.None)
{
controlsWithBorders.Add(control);
}
if (controlAsLabel != null && controlAsLabel.BorderStyle != BorderStyle.None)
{
controlsWithBorders.Add(control);
}
}

Though this method is not the fastest at run time, your problem could be cleanly solved with the use of C#'s dynamic typing feature. Consider the below snippet of code.
public void DealWithBorder(List<Control> lsControls) {
foreach(var element in lsControls){
dynamic dynamicElement = element;
try{
BorderStyle style = dynamicElement.BorderStyle;
// Handle if property does exist in the control
}
catch{
// Handle if property doesnt exist in the control
}
}
}
In English, it will try to act as if the property exists in the object but if it does not, an exception will thrown. For more info on dynamic typing, click here.

Select a property in the property grid

I am using a PropertyGrid to display the content of an object to the user.
This PropertyGrid is synchronized with an Excel sheet, assuming a cell value match a property value.
As the user selects a property in the PropertyGrid, the application highlights the corresponding cell in the Excel sheet which is opened beside. I can do this using the SelectedGridItemChanged event.
Now, I want to have a property selected in my PropertyGrid when the user selects a cell in the Excel sheet.
void myWorkbook_SheetSelectionChangeEvent(NetOffice.COMObject Sh, Excel.Range Target)
{
if (eventMask > 0)
return;
try
{
eventMask++;
this.Invoke(new Action(() =>
{
propertyGrid1.SelectedGridItem = ... // ?
}
}
finally
{
eventMask--;
}
}
I noticed that the SelectedGridItem can be written to.
Unfortunately I do not find a way to access the GridItems collection of my PropertyGrid so I can look for the right GridItem and select it.
How can I do this?

You can get all the GridItems from the root. I am using the below code to retrieve all the griditems within a property grid
private GridItem Root
{
get
{
GridItem aRoot = myPropertyGrid.SelectedGridItem;
do
{
aRoot = aRoot.Parent ?? aRoot;
} while (aRoot.Parent != null);
return aRoot;
}
}
and pass the root to the below method
private IList<GridItem> GetAllChildGridItems(GridItem theParent)
{
List<GridItem> aGridItems = new List<GridItem>();
foreach (GridItem aItem in theParent.GridItems)
{
aGridItems.Add(aItem);
if (aItem.GridItems.Count > 0)
{
aGridItems.AddRange(GetAllChildGridItems(aItem));
}
}
return aGridItems;
}

I came up against this quite a bit a project so I wrote an extension method for it:
if (!SetupManagerSettings.BootStrapperLocation.IsFile()) // Just another extension method to check if its a file
{
settingsToolStripMenuItem.Checked = true; // Event handler OnChecked ensures the settings panel is unhidden
settingsPropertyGrid.ActivateControl();
settingsPropertyGrid.SelectPropertyGridItemByName("BootStrapperLocation"); // Here is the extension method
return false;
}
Here is the extension method with a private, supporting method for traversing the hierarchy of objects (if this applies to your object model):
public static bool SelectPropertyGridItemByName(this PropertyGrid propertyGrid, string propertyName)
{
MethodInfo getPropEntriesMethod = propertyGrid.GetType().GetMethod("GetPropEntries", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
Debug.Assert(getPropEntriesMethod != null, #"GetPropEntries by reflection is still valid in .NET 4.6.1 ");
GridItemCollection gridItemCollection = (GridItemCollection)getPropEntriesMethod.Invoke(propertyGrid, null);
GridItem gridItem = TraverseGridItems(gridItemCollection, propertyName);
if (gridItem == null)
{
return false;
}
propertyGrid.SelectedGridItem = gridItem;
return true;
}
private static GridItem TraverseGridItems(IEnumerable parentGridItemCollection, string propertyName)
{
foreach (GridItem gridItem in parentGridItemCollection)
{
if (gridItem.Label != null && gridItem.Label.Equals(propertyName, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
{
return gridItem;
}
if (gridItem.GridItems == null)
{
continue;
}
GridItem childGridItem = TraverseGridItems(gridItem.GridItems, propertyName);
if (childGridItem != null)
{
return childGridItem;
}
}
return null;
}

I looked at the above options and did not like them that much, I altered it a bit found that this works well for me
bool TryFindGridItem(PropertyGrid grid, string propertyName, out GridItem discover)
{
if (grid is null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(grid));
}
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(propertyName))
{
throw new ArgumentException("You need to provide a property name", nameof(propertyName));
}
discover = null;
var root = pgTrainResult.SelectedGridItem;
while (root.Parent != null)
root = root.Parent;
foreach (GridItem item in root.GridItems)
{
//let's not find the category labels
if (item.GridItemType!=GridItemType.Category)
{
if (match(item, propertyName))
{
discover= item;
return true;
}
}
//loop over sub items in case the property is a group
foreach (GridItem child in item.GridItems)
{
if (match(child, propertyName))
{
discover= child;
return true;
}
}
//match based on the property name or the DisplayName if set by the user
static bool match(GridItem item, string name)
=> item.PropertyDescriptor.Name.Equals(name, StringComparison.Ordinal) || item.Label.Equals(name, StringComparison.Ordinal);
}
return false;
}
it uses a local method named match, if you're version of C# does not allow it then just put it external to the method and perhaps give it a better name.
Match looks at the DisplayName as well as the property name and returns true if either is a match, this might not be what you would like so then update that.
In my usecase I need to select the property based on a value the user can select so call the above method like this:
if (TryFindGridItem(pgMain, propertyName, out GridItem gridItem))
{
gridItem.Select();
}
It could theoretically never not find it unless the user selects a string that is not proper this way the if can be updated using an else .. I rather keep it safe then have a null-pointer exception if I can't find the name specified.
Also I am not going into sub classes and lists of classes as my use case doesn't need that, if yours does than perhaps make recursive calls in the GridItem.
Small note, replace GridItem with var and the code brakes as at compile time the IDE has no clue what a GridItemCollection returns…

How can, or can you access a group of controls or elements with code behind?

Is there a way to access a group of controls in ASP.NET somehow?
In jQuery you can access multiple elements using a class="somegroup" like
$('.somegroup')...
In ASP.NET I understand I can access an element or control using the ID, but is there a way to access multiple controls or elements at once?
For example, let's say I have this in design view:
<asp:Label ID="label1" CssClass="someclass"></asp:Label>
<asp:Label ID="lbl" CssClass="someclass"></asp:Label>
<asp:Label ID="lb2" CssClass="someclass"></asp:Label>
Now I want to turn the visibility off on all of them.
Instead of doing this:
label1.Visible = false;
lbl.Visible = false;
lb2.Visible = false;
Is there an equivalent to this?
someclass.Visible = false;
Is there possibly a different tag property I could be using?
using asp.net and C#

You may write your own function, pass a string class into it (and optionally a parent control or form) then loop thru Controls collection checking for the CssClass property and making needed modifications for matched controls.
Something like
void hide(Control el, string cssClass) {
foreach (WebControl c in el.Controls)
{
if (c.CssClass == cssClass)
{
c.Visible = false;
}
}
}
and call
hide(this, "someclass");

public void Apply(string selector, Control parent, Action<WebControl> a)
{
if (selector.StartsWith("."))
{
foreach(WebControl wc in parent.Controls)
{
if (wc.CssClass == selector.Substring(1))
{
a(wc);
if (wc.HasControls())
{
Apply(selector,wc,a);
}
}
}
}
if (selector.StartsWith("#"))
{
foreach (WebControl wc in parent.Controls)
{
if (wc.ID == selector.Substring(1))
{
a(wc);
return;//no need to search any further.
}else
{
if (wc.HasControls())
{
Apply(selector, wc, a);
}
}
}
}
}
Maybe this will help?
then you can do this:
Apply(".SomeClass", this, a => a.CssClass="SomethingElse");

There is no baked-in syntax for doing a selector-type operation in C#.
You can however write your own loop to do this, like this:
private void SetAllLabelsWithCssClassValueToInvisible(Control parentControl,
string className)
{
foreach(Control childControl in parentControls.Controls)
{
// Try to cast control to a label, null if it fails
var label = childControl as Label;
// Check to see if we successfully cast to label or not
if(label != null)
{
// Yes, it is a label
// Does it have the correct CssClass property value?
if(label.CssClass == className)
{
// Update the Visible property to false
label.Visible = false;
}
}
}
}
Note: Obviously you can expand/improve upon this notion and make it fit your needs, just a proof of concept that is very specific for Label controls with a particular CssClass value and the Visible property.
Internally, the jQuery Sizzle engine is doing this looping for you.

ItemsSource highlight when filtering wpf?

I have an ItemsSource bound up to my data. I have a TextBox that as the user starts typing it in, I filter the items based on the following Filter predicate on the textBoxText changed event:
ICollectionView listView = CollectionViewSource.GetDefaultView(myControl.ItemsSource);
listView.Filter = ((x) =>
{
MyData data = x as MyData;
return data.Name.Contains(searchString, System.StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase);
});
This works fine and filters the list. However I also want the items to highlight in yellow the entered search criteria as they type. How can I do that in wpf?
Kind of like:
If i searched for "est" and the item is Forest The Forest item highlights est in yellow or any other color in the ListBox? Thanks for any suggestions.

I achieved this by creating a custom control - HighlightableTextBlock that inherits from TextBlock and adds the following dependency property:
public string HighlightSource
{
get { return (string)GetValue(HighlightSourceProperty); }
set { SetValue(HighlightSourceProperty, value); }
}
public static readonly DependencyProperty HighlightSourceProperty =
DependencyProperty.Register("HighlightSource", typeof(string), typeof(HighlightableTextBlock), new PropertyMetadata("", OnChange));
Performing the actual highlighting in the OnChange event handler:
static void OnChange(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
var textBlock = d as HighlightableTextBlock;
var text = textBlock.Text;
var source = textBlock.HighlightSource;
if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(source) && !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(text))
{
var index = text.IndexOf(source);
if (index >= 0)
{
var start = text.Substring(0, index);
var match = text.Substring(index, source.Length);
var end = text.Substring(index + source.Length);
textBlock.Inlines.Clear();
textBlock.Inlines.Add(new Run(start));
textBlock.Inlines.Add(new Run(match) { Foreground = Brushes.Red });
textBlock.Inlines.Add(new Run(end));
}
}
}
And the markup side of things looks like this:
<controls:HighlightableTextBlock Text="{Binding SomeText}"
HighlightSource="{Binding ElementName=SearchTextBox, Path=Text}">
</controls:HighlightableTextBlock>
Seems to be working for me.
I've hardcoded the color of the matched substring in this example, but you can add a separate property if you want to pass that from the markup as well.
Hope this helps...