ListBox Group Header Expand and Collapse in WPF



Introduction

In my previous article we had seen how to achieve grouping and sorting in ListBox. In this article we will see how can we expand and collapse the header and its contents.

Creating WPF Project

Fire up Visual Studio 2008 and create a new WPF Project. Name it as ListBoxSampleWPF.

1.gif

Now we will add a ListBox to the application and it will look as following:

Now let's add some sample data to the ListBox.

public class Person
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public int Age { get; set; }
        public string Country { get; set; }
    }
ObservableCollection<Person> myList;
        public Window1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            myList = new ObservableCollection<Person>()
            {
                new Person{ Name="Name 1", Age=24, Country="Japan"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 2", Age=24, Country="India"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 3", Age=24, Country="China"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 4", Age=24, Country="Japan"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 5", Age=24, Country="India"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 6", Age=24, Country="US"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 7", Age=24, Country="US"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 8", Age=24, Country="India"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 9", Age=24, Country="India"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 10", Age=24, Country="India"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 11", Age=24, Country="India"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 12", Age=24, Country="China"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 13", Age=24, Country="India"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 14", Age=24, Country="India"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 15", Age=24, Country="India"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 16", Age=24, Country="China"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 17", Age=24, Country="India"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 18", Age=24, Country="India"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 19", Age=24, Country="India"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 20", Age=24, Country="US"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 21", Age=24, Country="US"},
                new Person{ Name="Name 22", Age=24, Country="India"},
            };
            lbPersonList.ItemsSource = myList;
        }

Now we would like to see the persons from different countries. Then add the following code.

ICollectionView view = CollectionViewSource.GetDefaultView(myList);
view.GroupDescriptions.Add(new PropertyGroupDescription("Country"));
view.SortDescriptions.Add(new SortDescription("Country", ListSortDirection.Ascending));
view.SortDescriptions.Add(new SortDescription("Name", ListSortDirection.Ascending));
lbPersonList.ItemsSource = view;

And in XAML we need to add the GroupStyle for the ListBox.

<ListBox x:Name="lbPersonList" Margin="19,17,162,25" AlternationCount="2">
            <ListBox.GroupStyle>
                <GroupStyle />
            </ListBox.GroupStyle>
            <ListBox.ItemTemplate>
                <DataTemplate>
                    <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}"/>
                </DataTemplate>
            </ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>

Now run the application and you will see the sorting in the grouped contents too.

2.gif
 
Now we will add the code for expand and collapse of header.

Now add a style to the Window.Resources as follows:

<Style x:Key="ContainerStyle" TargetType="{x:Type GroupItem}">
            <Setter Property="Template">
                <Setter.Value>
                    <ControlTemplate>
                        <Expander Header="{Binding Name}" IsExpanded="True">
                            <ItemsPresenter />
                        </Expander>
                    </ControlTemplate>
                </Setter.Value>
            </Setter>
</Style>

Add the style to the GroupStyle of ListBox.

<ListBox.GroupStyle>
                <GroupStyle ContainerStyle="{StaticResource ContainerStyle}"/>
</ListBox.GroupStyle>

Now run the application to see the expand and collapse of grouped headers.

3.gif
 
That's it. Hope this article helps.


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