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How to Display a Control's Hierarchy as a String

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26 Feb 2013CPOL 9.2K   1   1
Here's how to display a control's hierarchy as a string

I created an extension method that allows my program to find all of a control's parents' names. It returns a string separated overrideable delimiter (::).  This code is targeted for .NET 4 Client, but should also work in .NET 3.5.

VB.NET
Module WinformControlExtensions
  ''' <summary>
  ''' Find all of the control's parents' names and return a string of the complete hierarchy
  ''' </summary>
  ''' <param name="Control"><c><seealso cref="System.Windows.Forms.Control">Control</seealso></c> 
  ''' from which to display the hierarchy.</param>
  ''' <returns><c><seealso cref="String">String</seealso></c> of the parents' names.</returns>
  ''' <remarks></remarks>
  <System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Extension()>
  Public Function ToControlHierarchy(ByRef Control As Control, _
                                     Optional ByVal Separator As String = "::") As String
    Dim oStack As New Stack()

    Dim oParent As Control = Control.Parent
    oStack.Push(Control.Name)
    Do Until IsNothing(oParent)
      oStack.Push(oParent.Name)
      oParent = oParent.Parent
    Loop

    Dim sFullName As String = String.Empty
    Do While oStack.Count > 0
      sFullName &= oStack.Pop() & Separator
    Loop

    Return sFullName.Substring(0, sFullName.Length - Separator.Length)
  End Function
End Module

An example usage:

VB.NET
Dim oList As List(Of Control) = Me.FindAllChildren()

Dim oControl As Control
For Each oControl In oList
  Console.WriteLine(oControl.ToControlHierarchy("!"))
Next

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Software Developer (Senior)
United States United States
Long time software engineer who rambles occasionally about coding, best practices, and other random things.

Comments and Discussions

 
SuggestionSmall optimization Pin
Pikoslav28-Feb-13 3:28
Pikoslav28-Feb-13 3:28 
You could probably replace:

VB
Do While oStack.Count > 0
  sFullName &= oStack.Pop() & Separator
Loop

Return sFullName.Substring(0, sFullName.Length - Separator.Length)


with shorter:

VB
Return String.Join(Separator, oStack);

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