This article shows you how to create and use a DataGrid
control in WPF and XAML.
Note: This article is written using Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework
4.0.
Introduction
DataGrid element
represents WPF DataGrid control in XAML.
<DataGrid />
When you drag and drop a
DataGrid control from Toolbox to your
designer, position the control, this action adds following code to XAML.
The Width and Height properties
represent the width and the height of a DataGrid. The Name property represents the name of the
control, which is a unique identifier of a control. The Margin property sets the margin of
placement of DataGrid on the window. The following code snippet sets the name,
height, width, and margin of a DataGrid control.
Name="dataGrid1" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="225" /> |
Listing 1
Figure 1 shows Toolbox
and XAML code preview after a DataGrid is added to a page.
Figure 1
Data Binding
The ItemSource property of DataGrid is the key to data
binding. You can bind any data source that implements IEnuemerable. Each row in
the DataGrid is bound to an object in the data source and each column in the
DataGrid is bound to a property of the data source objects.
In this example, we will create a collection of objects and
bind it to a DataGrid control.
First, we are going to add a class to the project. The
Author class looks like Listing 2 that has ID, Name, DOB, BookTitle, and IsMVP
members.
public class Author
{
public int ID { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public DateTime DOB { get;
set; }
public string BookTitle { get;
set; }
public bool IsMVP { get; set; }
} |
Listing 2
Now let's create a collection of Author objects by using the
List class. The LoadCollectionData method in Listing 3 creates a List of Author
objects.
/// <summary>
/// List of Authors
/// </summary>
/// <returns></returns>
private List<Author>
LoadCollectionData()
{
List<Author> authors = new
List<Author>();
authors.Add(new
Author(){
ID = 101,
Name = "Mahesh
Chand",
BookTitle = "Graphics Programming with GDI+",
DOB = new
DateTime(1975, 2, 23),
IsMVP = false
});
authors.Add(new
Author()
{
ID = 201,
Name = "Mike
Gold",
BookTitle = "Programming
C#",
DOB = new
DateTime(1982, 4, 12),
IsMVP = true
});
authors.Add(new
Author()
{
ID = 244,
Name = "Mathew
Cochran",
BookTitle = "LINQ
in Vista",
DOB = new
DateTime(1985, 9, 11),
IsMVP = true
});
return
authors;
} |
Listing 3
Now the last step is to
set ItemsSource property of DataGrid. The following code snippet sets the
ItemsSource property of a DataGrid to List of Authors.
McDataGrid.ItemsSource =
LoadCollectionData();
The data loaded in
DataGrid looks like Figure 2, which shows the properties of the Author class a
column names.
Figure 2
As you saw in Figure 2,
all public properties of the Author object are represented as columns of the
DataGrid. This is because by default, the AutoGenerateColumns property of
DataGrid is true. If you do not wish to generate automatic columns, you simply
need to set this property to false.
McDataGrid.AutoGenerateColumns
= false;
Setting Column Width and Row Height
The ColumnWidth and RowHeight properties of DataGrid are
used to set the default column width and row height of DataGrid columns and
rows.
The following code snippet sets column width and row height
to 100 and 30 respectively.
<DataGrid Height="200" Width="500" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="12,21,0,0"
Name="McDataGrid" VerticalAlignment="Top" RowHeight="30" ColumnWidth="100"
>
The new DataGrid looks like Figure 3.
Figure 3
The MaxWidth and
MaxHeight properties represent the maximum width and maximum height of a
DataGrid. The MinWidth and MinHeight
properties represent the minimum width and maximum height of a DataGrid. The
MaxColumnWidth and MinColumnWidth properties represent the maximum width and
minimum width of columns in a DataGrid.
Grid Lines Visibility and Header
Visibility
The GridLinesVisibility property is used to make grid lines
visible. Using this option you can show and hide vertical, horizontal, all, or
none lines. The HeaderVisibility
property is used to show and hide row and column headers.
The following code snippet makes vertical grid lines visible
and header visible for both rows and columns.
GridLinesVisibility="Vertical"
HeadersVisibility="All"
The new DataGrid looks like Figure 4.
Figure 4
Grid Background, Row Background, and
Alternative Row Background
The Background property is used to set the background color
of the DataGrid. The RowBackground and AlternativeRowBackground properties are
used to set the background color of rows and alternative of the DataGrid.
The following code snippet sets background, row background,
and alternative row background colors of a DataGrid.
Background="LightGray"
RowBackground="LightYellow"
AlternatingRowBackground="LightBlue"
The new DataGrid looks like Figure 5.
Figure 5
Border Color and Thickness
The BorderBrush and BorderThickness properties are used to
set the color and width of the border. The following code snippet sets border
color to gray and thickness to 5.
BorderBrush="Gray"
BorderThickness="5"
The DataGrid with a new border looks like Figure 6.
Figure 6
Read Only and Freezing
The IsReadOnly property is used to make a DataGrid read
only. That means you cannot edit a DataGrid. The following code snippet sets
IsReadOnly property to true.
IsReadOnly="True"
The AreRowDetailsFrozen property is used to freeze the row
details area so it cannot be resized. The FrozenColumnCount property represents
the number of columns that user can not scroll horizontally. The following code
snippets sets AreRowDetailsFrozen to true and FrozenColumnCount to 2.
AreRowDetailsFrozen="True"
FrozenColumnCount="2"
DataGrid allows you to reorder columns by dragging a column
but you may disable this feature by setting the CanUserReorderColumns property
to false. The following code snippet
sets CanUserReorderColumns properties to false.
CanUserReorderColumns="False"
Data Grid allows you to change the width of columns. You may
fix columns so user can't resize them by setting the CanUserResizeColumns
property to false. The following code snippet sets CanUserResizeColumns
properties to false.
CanUserResizeColumns="False"
Sorting
By default, column sorting is enabled on a DataGrid. You can
sort a column by simply clicking on the column header. You may disable this feature by setting
CanUserSortColumns property to false. The following code snippet sets
CanUserSortColumns properties to false.
CanUserSortColumns = "False"
Scrolling
The HorizontalScrollBarVisibility and
VerticalScrollBarVisibility properties of type ScrollBarVisibility enumeration
control the horizontal and vertical scrollbars of the DataGrid. It has four
values - Auto, Disabled, Hidden, and Visible. The default value of these
properties is Auto, that means, when scrolling is needed, you will see it,
otherwise it will be hidden.
The following code snippet enables the horizontal and
vertical scrollbars.
HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Visible"
VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Visible"
The DataGrid with both scrollbars looks like Figure 7.
Figure 7
Selection Mode
The SelectionMode property decides if the DataGrid allows
only a single row or multiple rows selection. It has two values – Single and
Extended. The following code snippet
sets the SelectionMode to Extended.
SelectionMode="Extended"
Summary
In this article, I demonstrated how to create a DataGrid control using XAML and how to set its properties and display data using a collection of objects. I also discussed how to format the DataGrid rows, columns, their visibility, and scrolling. We also saw, how to make rows read-only and set selection mode property.
I am working on several more part of this series and will publish as soon as I am done. My goal is write a complete book chapter on Just DataGrid control. If you have some cool code, any tips or article on WPF DataGrid, feel free to share here.