Using Windows.Automation, can I locate an AutomationElement by regex?

Question

I have an object tree that has row objects within a table parent. I'm attempting to put all these rows into an AutomationElementCollection

AutomationElementCollection asdf = ParentTableObj.FindAll
     (
     TreeScope.Children,
     new PropertyCondition
          (
          AutomationElement.NameProperty,
          "I want to use regex here"
          )
     );

All of the rows' AutomationElement.NameProperty contains the string "row". However, they are variations of that string - e.g. "Row1", "Row2", "TopRow", ...

It seems like I may be missing something since the FindAll method allows you to define the TreeScope and find any AutomationElement, which matches the provided Condition parameter. I just want my condition to be unrestricted since I can already control the find scope by TreeScope.

Florent B. · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-13T16:38:14.753

4

//Example :
AutomationElement element = FindFirstDescendant( 
    AutomationElement.FromHandle(windows_hWnd), 
    (ele)=>Regex.IsMatch( ele.Current.Name, pattern)
);

//The generic method to find a descendant element:
public static AutomationElement FindFirstDescendant(AutomationElement element, Func<AutomationElement, bool> condition) {
    var walker = TreeWalker.ControlViewWalker;
    element = walker.GetFirstChild(element);
    while (element != null) {
        if (condition(element))
            return element;
        var subElement = FindFirstDescendant(element, condition);
        if (subElement != null)
            return subElement;
        element = walker.GetNextSibling(element);
    }
    return null;
}

edited Apr 13 '16 at 16:38

answered Oct 16 '13 at 18:18

Florent B.

41,537
7
86
101

FindDescendant doesn't seem to be defined – John Smith Apr 13 '16 at 16:36
@John Smith, I updated the answer, the name was renamed to FindFirstDescendant. – Florent B. Apr 13 '16 at 16:41

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 15 '13 at 02:55

3

As the documentation states, you can ask for a case-insensitive comparison. There is no "regular expression" flag. You will have to do the filtering manually.

answered Feb 15 '13 at 02:55

Raymond Chen

44,448
11
96
135

I thought this might be the case - Thank you for clarifying! – Zee Feb 15 '13 at 14:31

Using Windows.Automation, can I locate an AutomationElement by regex?

2 Answers2

Linked