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

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

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

        if (d == null)
            return null;

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