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Find a UI Automation Element for a List Item

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Note

This documentation is intended for .NET Framework developers who want to use the managed UI Automation classes defined in the System.Windows.Automation namespace. For the latest information about UI Automation, see Windows Automation API: UI Automation.

This topic shows how to retrieve an AutomationElement for an item within a list when the index of the item is known.

Example

The following example shows two ways of retrieving a specified item from a list, one using TreeWalker and the other using FindAll.

The first technique tends to be faster for Win32 controls, but the second is faster for Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) controls.

/// <summary>
/// Retrieves an element in a list, using TreeWalker.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="parent">The list element.</param>
/// <param name="index">The index of the element to find.</param>
/// <returns>The list item.</returns>
AutomationElement FindChildAt(AutomationElement parent, int index)
{
    if (index < 0)
    {
        throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException();
    }
    TreeWalker walker = TreeWalker.ControlViewWalker;
    AutomationElement child = walker.GetFirstChild(parent);
    for (int x = 1; x <= index; x++)
    {
        child = walker.GetNextSibling(child);
        if (child == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException();
        }
    }
    return child;
}

/// <summary>
/// Retrieves an element in a list, using FindAll.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="parent">The list element.</param>
/// <param name="index">The index of the element to find.</param>
/// <returns>The list item.</returns>
AutomationElement FindChildAtB(AutomationElement parent, int index)
{
    Condition findCondition = new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.IsControlElementProperty, true);
    AutomationElementCollection found = parent.FindAll(TreeScope.Children, findCondition);
    if ((index < 0) || (index >= found.Count))
    {
        throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException();
    }
    return found[index];
}

''' <summary>
''' Retrieves an element in a list, using TreeWalker.
''' </summary>
''' <param name="parent">The list element.</param>
''' <param name="index">The index of the element to find.</param>
''' <returns>The list item.</returns>
Function FindChildAt(ByVal parent As AutomationElement, ByVal index As Integer) As AutomationElement

    If (index < 0) Then
        Throw New ArgumentOutOfRangeException()
    End If
    Dim walker As TreeWalker = TreeWalker.ControlViewWalker
    Dim child As AutomationElement = walker.GetFirstChild(parent)
    For x As Integer = 1 To (index - 1)
        child = walker.GetNextSibling(child)
        If child = Nothing Then

            Throw New ArgumentOutOfRangeException()
        End If
    Next x
    Return child
End Function

''' <summary>
''' Retrieves an element in a list, using FindAll.
''' </summary>
''' <param name="parent">The list element.</param>
''' <param name="index">The index of the element to find.</param>
''' <returns>The list item.</returns>
Function FindChildAtB(ByVal parent As AutomationElement, ByVal index As Integer) As AutomationElement
    Dim findCondition As Condition = _
        New PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.IsControlElementProperty, True)
    Dim found As AutomationElementCollection = parent.FindAll(TreeScope.Children, findCondition)
    If (index < 0) Or (index >= found.Count) Then
        Throw New ArgumentOutOfRangeException()
    End If
    Return found(index)
End Function

See also