TableLayoutPanel GetControlFromPosition does not get non-visible controls. How do you access a non-visible control at a specified position?

I'm using a TableLayoutPanel and I want to get the control at a specific position in the TableLayoutPanel. I want to iterate over the rows and columns of TableLayoutPanel but this question applies equally if I just wanted a single control at a specific row and column.

Unfortunately GetControlFromPosition(int co开发者_Go百科lumn, int row) only retrieves controls that are visible (that is their Visible property is set to True). This is no good to me as sometimes I want to access a control at a specific position that is not visible and then make it visible.

I have had to resort to iterating over the TableLayoutPanel.Controls collection, and then get the position of each control using GetPositionFromControl(Control control) or GetCellPosition(Control control) until I find the position I want.

(I'm not sure of the difference between GetPositionFromControl and GetCellPosition methods as MS documentation is meagre, but I'll ask that question separately).

Is there a simpler or cleaner way for me to do this?

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The best I can come up with is creating an extension method. Create a new module named "Extensions.vb" and add:

Imports System.Runtime.CompilerServices

Public Module Extensions

    <Extension()>
    Public Function GetAnyControlAt(Panel As TableLayoutPanel, Column As Integer, Row As Integer) As Control
        For Each PanelControl As Control In Panel.Controls
            With Panel.GetCellPosition(PanelControl)
                If Column = .Column AndAlso Row = .Row Then Return PanelControl
            End With
        Next
        Return Nothing
    End Function
End Module

Now you can use the following to access the method:

Dim MyControl As Control = TableLayoutPanel1.GetAnyControlAt(Column, Row)

Extension methods add the method to the class that's listed as the first parameter, in this case Panel As TableLayoutPanel, and shuffle the rest of the parameters along.

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better c# method:

public static Control GetAnyControlAt(this TableLayoutPanel panel, int column, int row)
{
    foreach (Control control in panel.Controls)
    {
        var cellPosition = panel.GetCellPosition(control);
        if (cellPosition.Column == column && cellPosition.Row == row)
            return control;
    }
    return null;
}

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And for c#:

public static class ExtensionMethods
        {
            public static Control GetAnyControlAt(TableLayoutPanel pp, int col, int row)
            {
            bool fnd = false;
            Control sendCC = null;
            foreach (Control cc in pp.Controls)
            {
                if (pp.GetCellPosition(cc).Column == col)
                {
                    if (pp.GetCellPosition(cc).Row == row)
                    {
                        sendCC = cc;
                        fnd = true;
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }

            if (fnd == true)
            {
                return sendCC;
            }
            else
            {
                return null;
            }
        }
    }

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I found a workaround/hack to use GetControlFromPosition for visible=false, first add the control to the table layout panel and then set visible to false

example:

CheckBox Chk_Tbl_exist = new CheckBox();
Chk_Tbl_exist.Text = "This is a checkbox"; 
TableLayoutPanel.Controls.Add(Chk_Tbl_exist, 0, 1);
Chk_Tbl_exist.Visible = false;