This article demonstrates how to create and use a TextBox control in WPF using XAML and C#.

Creating a TextBox

The TextBox element represents a WPF TextBox control in XAML.

  1. <TextBox/>

The Width and Height attributes of the TextBox element represent the width and the height of a TextBox. The Text property of the TextBox element sets the content of a TextBox. The Name attribute represents the name of the control, which is a unique identifier of a control.

The code snippet in Listing 1 creates a TextBox control and sets the name, height, width, and content of a TextBox control.

  1. <TextBox Name="TextBox1" Height="30" Width="200" |
  2. Text="Hello! I am a TextBox.">
  3. </TextBox>

Listing 1

The output looks like Figure 1.

TextBox Output
Figure 1

As you can see from Figure 1, by default the TextBox is placed in the center of the page. We can place a TextBox control where we want by using the Margin, VerticalAlignment and HorizontalAlignment attributes that sets the margin, vertical alignment, and horizontal alignment of a control.

The code snippet in Listing 2 sets the position of the TextBox control in the left top corner of the page.

  1. <TextBox Name="TextBox1" Height="30" Width="200"
  2. Text="Hello! I am a TextBox."
  3. Margin="10,10,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top"
  4. HorizontalAlignment="Left">
  5. </TextBox>

Listing 2

Formatting a TextBox

The BorderBrush property of the TextBox sets a brush to draw the border of a TextBox. You may use any brush to fill the border. The code snippet in Listing 3 uses a linear gradient brush to draw the border with a combination of red and blue color.

  1. <TextBox.BorderBrush>
  2. <LinearGradientBrush StartPoint="0,0" EndPoint="1,1">
  3. <GradientStop Color="Blue" Offset="0" />
  4. <GradientStop Color="Red" Offset="1.0" />
  5. </LinearGradientBrush>
  6. </TextBox.BorderBrush>

Listing 3

The Background and Foreground properties of the TextBox set the background and foreground colors of a TextBox. You may use any brush to fill the border. The following code snippet uses linear gradient brushes to draw the background and foreground of a TextBox.

  1. <TextBox.Background>
  2. <LinearGradientBrush StartPoint="0,0" EndPoint="1,1">
  3. <GradientStop Color="Blue" Offset="0.1" />
  4. <GradientStop Color="Orange" Offset="0.25" />
  5. <GradientStop Color="Green" Offset="0.75" />
  6. <GradientStop Color="Red" Offset="1.0" />
  7. </LinearGradientBrush>
  8. </TextBox.Background>
  9. <TextBox.Foreground>
  10. <LinearGradientBrush StartPoint="0,0" EndPoint="1,1">
  11. <GradientStop Color="Orange" Offset="0.25" />
  12. <GradientStop Color="White" Offset="1.0" />
  13. </LinearGradientBrush>
  14. </TextBox.Foreground>

The new TextBox looks like Figure 2.

TextBox Output
Figure 2

Setting Image as Background of a TextBox

To set an image as background of a TextBox, we can set an image as the Background of the TextBox. The code snippet in Listing 4 sets the background of a TextBox to an image.

  1. <TextBox.Background>
  2. <ImageBrush ImageSource="dock.jpg" />
  3. </TextBox.Background>

Listing 4

The new output looks like Figure 3.

TextBox Output
Figure 3

Creating a TextBox Dynamically

The code listed in Listing 5 creates a TextBox control programmatically. First, it creates a TextBox object and sets its width, height, contents, background and foreground and later the TextBox is added to the LayoutRoot.

  1. private void CreateATextBox() | {
  2. TextBox txtb = new TextBox();
  3. txtb.Height = 50;
  4. txtb.Width = 200;
  5. txtb.Text = "Text Box content";
  6. txtb.Background = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Orange);
  7. txtb.Foreground = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Black);
  8. LayoutRoot.Children.Add(txtb);
  9. }
Listing 5

Setting Fonts of TextBox Contents

The FontSize, FontFamily, FontWeight, FontStyle, and FontStretch properties are used to set the font size, family, weight, style and stretch to the text of a TextBox. The code snippet in Listing 6 sets the font properties of a TextBox.

  1. FontSize="14" FontFamily="Verdana" FontWeight="Bold"

Listing 6

The new output looks like Figure 4.

TextBox Output
Figure 4

The FontSource property allows loading custom fonts dynamically. The following code snippet sets the FontSource property.

  1. Uri fontUri = new Uri("SomeFont.ttf", UriKind.Relative);
  2. StreamResourceInfo MySRI = Application.GetResourceStream(fontUri);
  3. TextBox1.FontSource = new FontSource(MySRI.Stream);

Non Editable TextBox

The IsReadOnly property of the TextBox sets the text box read only. By default, it is false.

  1. IsReadOnly="True"

Restricting Text Size of a TextBox

The MaxLength property of the TextBox sets the number of characters allowed to input in a text box.

  1. MaxLength="250"

Scrolling, Alignment, and Wrapping

The HorizontalScrollBarVisibility and VerticalScrollBarVisibility properties are used to set horizontal and vertical scroll bars of a TextBox, which is of type ScrollBarVisibility enumeration. The ScrollBarVisibility enumeration has four values – Disabled, Auto, Hidden, and Visible. The following code snippet sets the horizontal and vertical scroll bars visible in a TextBox.

  1. HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Visible"
  2. VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto"

The TextWrapping property sets the wrap of no-wrap text. The following code snippet sets the wrapping text option.

  1. TextWrapping="Wrap"

The TextAlignment property sets the text alignment in a TextBox, which is of type TextAlignment enumeration. A text can be aligned left, center, or right.

  1. TextAlignment="Right"

The AcceptReturn property sets if the return is accepted in a TextBox or not.

  1. AcceptsReturn="True"

Listing 7 shows all these properties in a complete sample.

  1. <TextBox Name="TextBox2" Margin="10,10,50,0
  2. Width="300" Height="150"
  3. HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Visible"
  4. VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Visible"
  5. TextWrapping="Wrap"
  6. TextAlignment="Right"
  7. MaxLength="500"
  8. IsReadOnly="False"
  9. AcceptsReturn="True" >
  11. </TextBox>

Listing 7

Summary

In this article, I discussed how we can create and format a TextBox control in WPF and C#. After that we saw how to create a TextBox control dynamically. Then we saw how to set various properties of a TextBox such as making it non editable, restricting the size of text, and setting the foreground and background of the selected text.