Access A Web User Control Value In Another Web User Control

I am writing this article as one of my friend asked me to write on this topic. So I can say it’s an on demand article.

Here I am going to show how we can access one Web User Control (.ascx) control value in another Web user Control.

My scenario is I have a drop down list on one of the Web user Control and on button click I am going to show this Drop Down selected value in another Web User control.

Open Visual Studio, File, New, then ASP.NET Empty Web Site



Now I will add 2 Web user Control. So right click on Project’s Solution Explorer, Add, then select Web User Control.





Add another web user control



Now open WebUserControl1.ascx and here's the code snippet:

<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="WebUserControl1.ascx.cs" Inherits="AccessUserControlToAnother.WebUserControl1" %>
<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlEmployees" runat="server">
    <asp:ListItem>Amol Malhotra</asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem>Shambhu Sharma</asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem>Hemant Chopra</asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem>Vishwa M Goswami</asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem>Mohit Kalra</asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem>Abhishek Nigam</asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem>Yogesh Gupta</asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem>Mayank Dhulekar</asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem>Saurabh Mehrotra</asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem>Rakesh Dixit</asp:ListItem>
</asp:DropDownList>

Now open WebUserControl1.ascx.cs and write the following code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

namespace AccessUserControlToAnother
{
    public partial class WebUserControl1 : System.Web.UI.UserControl
    {
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {

        }

        public DropDownList ControlA_DDL
        {
            get
            {
                return this.ddlEmployees;
            }
        }

    }
}

Now Open WebUserControl2.ascx and write the following code:

<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="WebUserControl2.ascx.cs" Inherits="AccessUserControlToAnother.WebUserControl2" %>
<table style="background-color: skyblue; width: 100%;">
    <tr>
        <td style="height: 10px;"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>

        <td>
            <asp:Button ID="btnDDLValue" runat="server" OnClick="btnDDLValue_Click" Text="Get DropDown Selected Value" /></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td style="height: 10px;"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>

        <td>Your Selected Employee:
            <asp:TextBox ID="txtDDLValue" runat="server"></asp:TextBox></td>
    </tr>

</table>

Now open WebUserControl2.ascx.cs and write the following code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

namespace AccessUserControlToAnother
{
    public partial class WebUserControl2 : System.Web.UI.UserControl
    {
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {

        }
        protected void btnDDLValue_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            WebUserControl1 ctrlA = (WebUserControl1)Page.FindControl("cA");
            DropDownList ddl = ctrlA.ControlA_DDL;
            txtDDLValue.Text = ddl.SelectedValue;
        }
    }
}

Now run you Application: