How to access the stack in UINavigationController

UINavigationControllers have a property called viewControllers as you have stated above. Since this is an array of View Controllers, referencing a specific view controller in this hierarchy is no different than accessing any other object in an array.

UIViewController *theControllerYouWant = [self.navigationController.viewControllers objectAtIndex:(theIndexOfYourViewController)];

In addition check out the Navigation Controllers article in the iOS Developer Library, specifically the section called 'Modifying the Navigation Stack'.

Assuming you meant that your navigation controller has three view controllers, you should be able to access the navigation controller from any of three view controllers using self.navigationController.

So if you want to get the second view controller in the stack, you should do –

UIViewController * viewController = [self.navigationController.viewControllers objectAtIndex:1];

This is assuming that there are at least two view controllers on the navigation controller.

The array returned by the viewControllers property is the stack. They are ordered in the same sequence that they were shown. the controller at index 0 is the controller you started with. The controller you are currently looking at is the highest index. Since indexes are counted from zero the last item index will be the count (n)-1.

Now you say "views" in your post. There is a difference between views and view controllers. If you are talking about multiple pieces that are all visible at the same time then you are talking about views not view controllers. The Navigation Controller is for handling multiple view controllers. If you are dealing with views than you want to access the subviews of the current view controller's view myViewController.view.subviews They order themselves in a similar way.