How To Find an Item in a Tree Control Via its Label

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Edition, versions 2.2, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2

SUMMARY

The "tree view" common control does not have any built-in method for searching the entire tree, or for selecting an item contained within the tree when given a specific item label. This article provides code that returns the location of any item in a tree when given a specific label to search for.

The GetItemByName() function takes the window handle of the tree control, HTREEITEM, which points to the item in the tree to start searching and a string for which to search.

MORE INFORMATION

Sample Code

#include <windows.h>
#include <commctrl.h>

// Note: If you have items with more than 50 characters
// of text, you'll need to increase this value.
#define MAXTEXTLEN 50

                        LPCTSTR szItemName)
{
    // If hItem is NULL, start search from root item.
    if (hItem == NULL)
        hItem = (HTREEITEM)SendMessage(hWnd, TVM_GETNEXTITEM,
                                       TVGN_ROOT, 0);
    while (hItem != NULL)
    {
        char szBuffer[MAXTEXTLEN+1];
        TV_ITEM item;

        item.hItem = hItem;
        item.mask = TVIF_TEXT | TVIF_CHILDREN;
        item.pszText = szBuffer;
        item.cchTextMax = MAXTEXTLEN;
        SendMessage(hWnd, TVM_GETITEM, 0, (LPARAM)&item);

        // Did we find it?
        if (lstrcmp(szBuffer, szItemName) == 0)
            return hItem;

        // Check whether we have child items.
        if (item.cChildren)
        {
            // Recursively traverse child items.
            HTREEITEM hItemFound, hItemChild;

            hItemChild = (HTREEITEM)SendMessage(hWnd, TVM_GETNEXTITEM,
                                                TVGN_CHILD, (LPARAM)hItem);
            hItemFound = GetItemByName(hWnd, hItemChild, szItemName);

            // Did we find it?
            if (hItemFound != NULL)
                return hItemFound;
        }

        // Go to next sibling item.
        hItem = (HTREEITEM)SendMessage(hWnd, TVM_GETNEXTITEM,
                                       TVGN_NEXT, (LPARAM)hItem);
    }

    // Not found.
    return NULL;

For example, to search the entire tree for the word "Jeff" and then highlight that word, you can use the following code:

Using Windows SDK:

    HTREEITEM hItem;
    hItem = GetItemByName(hWndTreeCtrl, NULL, "Jeff");
    if (hItem != NULL)
        SendMessage(hWndTreeCtrl, TVM_SELECTITEM, TVGN_CARET,
                    (LPARAM)hItem);

    HTREEITEM hItem = GetItemByName(m_TreeCtrl.GetSafeHwnd(),
                                    NULL, "Jeff");
    if (hItem != NULL)
        m_TreeCtrl.SelectItem(hItem);