How can I get all the controls in a namespace?

Question

How can I get all the controls in a namespace? For example, I want to get the controls in System.Windows.Forms: TextBox, ComboBox etc.

Possible duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1558127/how-can-i-get-all-controls-from-a-form-including-controls-in-any-container — Shamim Hafiz - MSFT, Apr 26 '11 at 08:12
Or http://stackoverflow.com/questions/949246/how-to-get-all-classes-within-namespace — František Žiačik, Apr 26 '11 at 08:19
@Gunner, please read the question, he is talking about namespace not the form container in the link you specified. — Akash Kava, Apr 26 '11 at 08:23
@Akash : please check the history - the title was changed from 'in a control' to 'in a namespace' it was quite an ambiguous question :) — Nick, Apr 26 '11 at 08:56

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 26 '11 at 08:17

6

The notion of a control in a namespace is a bit unclear. You could use reflection to get classes in an assembly in a given namespace which derive from a particular base type. For example:

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var controlType = typeof(Control);
        var controls = controlType
            .Assembly
            .GetTypes()
            .Where(t => controlType.IsAssignableFrom(t) && 
                        t.Namespace == "System.Windows.Forms"
            );
        foreach (var control in controls)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(control);
        }
    }
}

answered Apr 26 '11 at 08:17

Darin Dimitrov

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I wonder whether you need to do a 'startswith' rather than equality in the namespace comparison so that controls in child namespaces are included. – Nick Apr 26 '11 at 08:18
@Nick, yes this is a possibility and it will depend on the specific requirements. – Darin Dimitrov Apr 26 '11 at 08:19
Genius. With this I can even get all controls from a custom namespace from my app. Just what I've searched for. Thanks! – C4d Jun 07 '16 at 11:50

Farzin Zaker · Answer 2 · 2011-04-26T08:21:12.047

5

this will return all classes in a specified namespace :

string @namespace = "System.Windows.Forms";

var items = (from t in Assembly.Load("System.Windows.Forms").GetTypes()
        where t.IsClass && t.Namespace == @namespace
        && t.IsAssignableFrom(typeof(Control))
        select t).ToList();

edited Apr 26 '11 at 08:21

answered Apr 26 '11 at 08:15

Farzin Zaker

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Also you need to check that the class is a control. – Nick Apr 26 '11 at 08:17
@Nick sure, Edited to check the control type! ;) – Farzin Zaker Apr 26 '11 at 08:24
can not find System.Windows.Forms – deneme Apr 26 '11 at 08:29

jonsca · Answer 3 · 2011-04-26T08:51:13.050

0

Your form object has a Controls member, which is of type ControlCollection. It is essentially a list (with some other interfaces under the hood) of all of the controls.

EDIT: As per your comment, you need to cast the control back into a textbox. First you must identify it as a control.

foreach (var control in controls)
{
    if(control is TextBox)
    {
        (control as TextBox).Text = "Or whatever you need to do";
    }
}

edited Apr 26 '11 at 08:51

answered Apr 26 '11 at 08:16

jonsca

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Can i create a control from a string value ? – deneme Apr 26 '11 at 08:43
"System.Window.Forms.TextBox" how can i create a textbox from this string value – deneme Apr 26 '11 at 08:44

How can I get all the controls in a namespace?

3 Answers3