c# - How do I get all controls of a form in Windows Forms? -

i have form named a.

a contains lots of different controls, including main groupbox. groupbox contains lots of tables , others groupboxes. want find control has e.g. tab index 9 in form a, don't know groupbox contains control.

how can this?

with recursion...

public static ienumerable<t> descendants<t>( control control ) t : class {     foreach (control child in control.controls) {          t childoft = child t;         if (childoft != null) {             yield return (t)childoft;         }          if (child.haschildren) {             foreach (t descendant in descendants<t>(child)) {                 yield return descendant;             }         }     } } 

you can use above function like:

var checkbox = (from c in myform.descendants<checkbox>()                 c.tabindex == 9                 select c).firstordefault(); 

that first checkbox anywhere within form has tabindex of 9. can use whatever criteria want.

if aren't fan of linq query syntax, above re-written as:

var checkbox = myform.descendants<checkbox>()                      .firstordefault(x=>x.tabindex==9);