>>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");

Thanks Paul,

My placeHolder is in a RADPanelBar control. I just tried to access with:

this.CasePanelBar.FindControl("holdDefendant");

I had no joy with that either so I will try to do a recursive routine like Bruce showed to see if I can dig into the controls to find it.
Tim