How to check the controls (display name and type) in the GroupBox by recursion and display on a DataGridView?

Question

How to read controller properties, automatically added to a table assigned to a DataGridView?

Dim dt As DataTable = New DataTable
dt.Columns.Add("Name")
dt.Columns.Add("Type")
Dim n As Integer = Me.Controls.Count
For i As Integer = 0 To n - 1
    dt.Rows.Add(Me.Controls(i).Name.ToString, Me.Controls(i).GetType.ToString)
Next

DataGridView1.DataSource = dt

The above is the check for controls in the Form, it only displays Name and type of GroupBoxes, help me use recursive function to check the controls in GroupBox.

Below is my idea, but it was not working:

Public Sub V_gr(ByVal _Obj As Object)
    dt.Columns.Add("Name")
    dt.Columns.Add("Type")
    If (_Obj.Controls.count > 0) Then
        Dim i As Integer = _Obj.Controls.count - 1
        dt.Rows.Add(_Obj.Controls(i).Name.ToString, _Obj.Controls(i).GetType.ToString)
        DataGridView1.DataSource = dt
    End If
End Sub

Use a temporary table assigned to DataGridView and display the control information checked on it with 2 columns Name and Type

Answer 1

You can split the DataTable creation and the Controls enumeration in two different methods:

• The first method is the public one, which can be called just passing the Parent control from which to start the enumeration.
• This method just creates a DataTable, then calls the private method to fill it with the results of the enumeration
• The private method creates a new DataRow for each Control it finds and add it to the DataTable.

You could also modify the private method to return a List of objects that can be transformed to a DataTable after.

I've added a Column, named "Parent" , which references the Parent of the control. It may be useful to know which are the Parents of these Controls.

' Find all Controls in the current Form
DataGridView1.DataSource = ControlsListToDataTable(Me)

Private Function ControlsListToDataTable(parent As Control) As DataTable
    If (parent Is Nothing) OrElse (Not parent.HasChildren) Then Return Nothing
    Dim dt As DataTable = New DataTable("ParentControls")
    dt.Columns.AddRange({
        New DataColumn() With {.ColumnName = "Name", .DataType = GetType(String)},
        New DataColumn() With {.ColumnName = "Type", .DataType = GetType(String)},
        New DataColumn() With {.ColumnName = "Parent", .DataType = GetType(String)}
    })
    GetAllControls(parent, dt)
    Return dt
End Function

Private Sub GetAllControls(parent As Control, dt As DataTable)
    For Each ctl As Control In parent.Controls.OfType(Of Control)
        dt.Rows.Add({ctl.Name, ctl.GetType().FullName, ctl.Parent.Name})
        If ctl.HasChildren Then GetAllControls(ctl, dt)
    Next
End Sub

To find a Control in the DataTable, you can use the DataTable.DefaultView Sort and FindRows methods:

[DataTable].DefaultView.Sort = "Name"
Dim result = [DataTable].DefaultView.FindRows("TextBox1")

Or use a LINQ method:

Dim control = [DataTable].Rows.OfType(Of DataRow)().
              FirstOrDefault(Function(dr) dr(0).ToString().Equals("TextBox1"))

Where [DataTable] can be the original DataTable returned by the public method or the DataGridView.DataSource :

 Dim dt = CType(DataGridView1.DataSource, DataTable)
 Dim control = dt.Rows.OfType(Of DataRow)(). (... etc ...)