WPF: Bind DataGrid to List<String>

Question

Funny, how sometimes the simple things bite me in the behind.

I can bind a DataGrid nicely to a Collection of some arbitrary class, using a DataGridTextColumn like this:

// bound to List<Class>
<DataGridTextColumn Header="Name" Binding="{Binding Name}"/>

Now I want to bind a DataGrid to a simple Collection of String. So, since there is no property "Name" or something like that to bind to how do I write the binding:

// bound to List<String>
<DataGridTextColumn Header="Name" Binding="{Binding ???}"/>

String has no Property "Value" or something like that. And if I just write {Binding } I'll end up with a one-way-binding, unable to write changes back to the Collection.

Thinking about it, I think it is not possible to bind to a collection<String>, so I do need to wrap my string into a class?
Or is there another way?

Arcturus · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-10 10:42:52Z

40

You can make it run with the following Binding:

Binding="{Binding Path=.}

But it wont solve your problem, because strings are reference typed that are immutable, meaning you cannot change the string reference you have bound to your user interface.

So your thoughts are correct, you will need to wrap these strings in objects, use the path property of Binding and feed these objects to your DataGrid.

public class StringWrapper
{
    public string Value { get; set; }
}

edited Jun 10, 2013 at 10:42

answered May 20, 2010 at 10:46

Arcturus

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3 Comments

wingerse Over a year ago

But why is the wrapper working? We are still binding to a string right?

Arcturus Over a year ago

No.. You're binding to an object that contains a string. Thats the difference

wingerse Over a year ago

I understand now. Binding cannot change the bound reference. It can only change properties. It makes sense now. Thanks a lot.

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