How do I access the children of an ItemsControl?

Question

If i have a component derived from ItemsControl, can I access a collection of it's children so that I can loop through them to perform certain actions? I can't seem to find any easy way at the moment.

score 66 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 22 '20 at 12:35

66

A solution similar to Seb's but probably with better performance :

for(int i = 0; i < itemsControl.Items.Count; i++)
{
    UIElement uiElement =
        (UIElement)itemsControl.ItemContainerGenerator.ContainerFromIndex(i);
}

edited Apr 22 '20 at 12:35

StayOnTarget

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answered Jun 16 '09 at 09:42

Thomas Levesque

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it seems if the control hasn't rendered/been shown yet, it won't have any items. – Maslow Oct 19 '17 at 14:00

score 25 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 06 '13 at 16:43

25

See if this helps you out:

foreach(var item in itemsControl.Items)
{
    UIElement uiElement =
        (UIElement)itemsControl.ItemContainerGenerator.ContainerFromItem(item);
}

There is a difference between logical items in a control and an UIElement.

edited Sep 06 '13 at 16:43

Dave Clemmer

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answered Jun 16 '09 at 09:31

Seb Nilsson

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score 23 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 06 '13 at 16:44

23

To identify ItemsControl's databound child controls (like a ToggleButton), you can use this:

for (int i = 0; i < yourItemsControl.Items.Count; i++)
{

    ContentPresenter c = (ContentPresenter)yourItemsControl.ItemContainerGenerator.ContainerFromItem(yourItemsControl.Items[i]);
    ToggleButton tb = c.ContentTemplate.FindName("btnYourButtonName", c) as ToggleButton;

    if (tb.IsChecked.Value)
    {
        //do stuff

    }
}

edited Sep 06 '13 at 16:44

Dave Clemmer

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answered Dec 09 '09 at 20:11

Junior Mayhé

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You need to call `c.ApplyTemplate();` before calling `FindName()` or else it returns null. – Karmacon Jan 15 '16 at 00:00
2

This should be the accepted answer in my opinion. Anyway the c variable must be checked because it can be null, for example if the control is not visible. – Emanuele Benedetti Nov 15 '18 at 14:56

How do I access the children of an ItemsControl?

3 Answers3

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