What happens when the FindControl() doesn’t work?

While working in SharepPoint I needed, from an UserControl in my WebPart, find a control in the page. Of course, I tried, different level at which to apply the FindControl(). The first thing I tried was this.Parent.Page.FindControl(“controlID”). That didn’t work. Then I tried different permutations. Finally I gave up with the FindControl and decided that I would do it the old fashion way. I’ll walk the tree. Here is some sample code how to do that.

Control PViewer = null;

foreach (Control Ctrl in this.Parent.Page.Controls)

{

PViewer = FindMyControl(Ctrl,”MyControlID”);

if (PViewer != null)

{

break;

}

}

private Control FindMyControl (Control ctrl, string controlID)

{

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Control Ret = null;

foreach (Control Ctrl in ctrl.Controls)

{

if (Ctrl.ID != null && Ctrl.ID.ToLower() == controlID.ToLower())

{

Ret = Ctrl;

break;

}

else

{

Ret = FindMyControl (Ctrl,controlID);

if (Ret != null)

{

break;

}

}

}

return Ret;

}

Of course if you examine the code you will notice that I’m walking the tree recursively calling the FindMyControl method over and over again until I find the control I’m looking for.

Don’t forget the test for null in the if (Ctrl.ID != null && Ctrl.ID.ToLower() == controlID.ToLower()) statement. Of course make sure the test for null comes first. J