>Hi all,
>
>I have used place holder controls fairly often for adding user controls dynamically at runtime. Typically, I can access a placeholder directly and just add a control like this.
>

>ctrlSpecialSpecs specialSpecControl = (ctrlSpecialSpecs)Page.LoadControl("~/ORCSelection/UserControls/ctrlSpecialSpecs.ascx");
>           
>// Add the Control to the Placeholder
>this.holdSpecialSpecs.Controls.Add(specialSpecControl);
>

>
>Currently I have a place holder that is inside another complex control and accessing it this way just doesn't work as the control is not visible. I tried to do a find control like this, but get a null reference exception on the control.
>

>mmPlaceHolder defendantHolder = (mmPlaceHolder)this.Page.FindControl("holdDefendant");
>defendantHolder.Controls.Add(defendantDisplay);
>

>
>It is defined on the page like this; very straight forward.
>

> <mm:mmPlaceHolder ID="holdDefendant" runat="server" >
> </mm:mmPlaceHolder>
>

>
>Anybody have any ideas on how to get access to this control?
>Thanks
>Tim


FindControl isn't recursive - if it is inside of a container you need to call FindControl on the container instead. ex. this.holdSpecialSpecs.FindControl("holdDefendant");