How Do I Find all Form Items in a Specified Control in ASP .NET

Question

I ma using ASP .NET with a ListView, at one point, I need to go through each ListViewDataItem and find all of the form items within it, then pull the values from said form items.

here is a general idea of what i want to do:

foreach (ListViewDataItem listItem in MyList.Items) {
    foreach (FormItem formItem in listItem){
        //somehow in here i need to find the type of the item (i.e. textbox, dropdown etc)        
        //then i need to pull the value from them
    }
}

Answer 1

Private Sub LoopControls(ByVal cntrl As Control)
   If cntrl.Controls.Count > 0 Then
       For Each child As Control In cntrl.Controls
            LoopControls(child)
        Next
   Else
       If TypeOf cntrl Is Textbox Then
          Dim txtBox as TextBox = CType(cntrl, TextBox)
          Dim myVal as String = txtBox.Text
       End If
   End If
End Sub

EDIT: Sorry about the VB, but that is my primary language and don't have the time right now to convert to C#, so you would have to convert this routine to C#, but it should give you an idea of how to handle that. Basically you would call this function, passing in the parent control and it would recursively loop through all child controls and any children they had.

Answer 2

Edited to include form value...

Maybe something like this?

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        var allFormControls = new Dictionary<Control, string>();
        GetControls(this.Controls, allFormControls);
    }

    private static void GetControls(ControlCollection controlCollection, IDictionary<Control, string> allFormControls)
    {



        foreach (Control control in controlCollection)
        {
            if (control is TextBox)
                allFormControls.Add(control, ((TextBox) control).Text);

            GetControls(control.Controls, allFormControls);
        }
    }

Ran against the following:

<asp:Table runat="server">
        <asp:TableRow runat="server">
            <asp:TableCell runat="server">
                <asp:TextBox runat="server">foo
                </asp:TextBox>
                <asp:Button runat="server" />
                <asp:Table ID="Table1" runat="server">
                    <asp:TableRow ID="TableRow1" runat="server">
                        <asp:TableCell ID="TableCell1" runat="server">
                            <asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server">bar
                            </asp:TextBox>
                            <asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" />
                        </asp:TableCell>
                        <asp:TableCell>
                            <asp:Table ID="Table2" runat="server">
                                <asp:TableRow ID="TableRow2" runat="server">
                                    <asp:TableCell ID="TableCell2" runat="server">
                                        <asp:TextBox ID="TextBox2" runat="server">hello
                                        </asp:TextBox>
                                        <asp:Button ID="Button2" runat="server" />
                                    </asp:TableCell>
                                    <asp:TableCell>
                                        <asp:Table ID="Table3" runat="server">
                                            <asp:TableRow ID="TableRow3" runat="server">
                                                <asp:TableCell ID="TableCell3" runat="server">
                                                    <asp:TextBox ID="TextBox3" runat="server">world
                                                    </asp:TextBox>
                                                    <asp:Button ID="Button3" runat="server" />
                                                </asp:TableCell>
                                            </asp:TableRow>
                                        </asp:Table>
                                    </asp:TableCell>
                                </asp:TableRow>
                            </asp:Table>
                        </asp:TableCell>
                    </asp:TableRow>
                </asp:Table>
            </asp:TableCell>
        </asp:TableRow>
    </asp:Table>

Result:

allFormControls
Count = 4
    [0]: {[System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox, foo
                    ]}
    [1]: {[System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox, bar
                                ]}
    [2]: {[System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox, hello
                                            ]}
    [3]: {[System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox, world
                                                        ]}

Answer 3

I would lean toward something like the following example.

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    foreach(var control in GetControls(Controls))
    {
        var textBox = control as TextBox;
        if ( textBox != null )
        {
            //textBox.Text;
            continue;
        }

        var dropdown = control as DropDownList;
        if ( dropdown != null )
        {
            //dropdown.SelectedValue;
            continue;
        }

        // etc...
    }
}

private static IEnumerable<Control> GetControls(ControlCollection controlCollection)
{
    foreach (Control control in controlCollection)
    {
        yield return control;

        if ( control.Controls == null || control.Controls.Count == 0 )
            continue;

        foreach (var sub in GetControls(control.Controls))
        {
            yield return sub;
        }
    }
}