Access Collection Types in XAML

Collections are used to work with a group of items and .NET provides a good list of types to deal with collections. If you want to learn more about collections, check out the articles .NET Collections with C# and Generic Collection Classes in C# for more details.

Sometimes we need to use a collection type within XAML code. XAML allows developers to access .NET class library collection types form the scripting language.

The first step to call a collection in XAML is to import the collection namespace in XAML.

The code snippet in Listing 1 creates an array of String types, a collection of strings. To use the Array and String types, we must import the System namespace.

The code listing in Listing 1 creates an Array of String objects in XAML. As you may have noticed in Listing 2, you must import the System namespace in XAML using the xmlns.

 

<Window x:Class="XamlCollectionsSample.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
Title="MainWindow" Height="402.759" Width="633.345">

<Window.Resources>
<x:Array x:Key="AuthorList" Type="{x:Type sys:String}">
<sys:String>Mahesh Chand</sys:String>
<sys:String>Praveen Kumar</sys:String>
<sys:String>Raj Beniwal</sys:String>
<sys:String>Neel Beniwal</sys:String>
<sys:String>Sam Hobbs</sys:String>
</x:Array>
</Window.Resources>

</Window>

 

Listing 1

The ItemsSource property of ListBox in XAML is used to bind the ArrayList. See Listing 2.

 

<ListBox Name="lst" Margin="5" ItemsSource="{StaticResource AuthorList}" />

 

Listing 2