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Providing Data

The data items that populate a grid are provided by the DataGridCollectionView or DataGridCollectionViewSource (in XAML) assigned to the ItemsSource property of the DataGridControl class. These views allow the data items contained in a grid to be grouped, sorted, and/or filtered (see Example 1).

In order for the DataGridCollectionViewSource to create a custom view for the data items that will eventually be displayed in a grid, it must be bound to the underlying data source or data items must be provided manually via the SourceItems property. In turn, a grid will be bound to the DataGridCollectionViewSource that contains the customized data-item view (see also Grouping, Sorting, and Filtering).

DataRow objects are the UI representation of data items. They have a limited lifespan and exist only while they are visible in a grid's viewport; this is called virtualization and is the reason that the Items property accesses the data items and not the data rows. The SelectedItem, SelectedItems, and CurrentItem properties of the DataGridControl class also reference data items and not data rows (see Example 3).

Programmatically, when the DataGridCollectionView is bound to a data source, the ItemProperties.Clear method must be called prior to adding DataGridItemProperty objects to the ItemProperties collection to remove items that were automatically added when the DataGridCollectionView was instantiated. Automatic creation of item properties can be disabled by setting the AutoCreateItemProperties property of the DataGridCollectionViewSource to false (by default, true) or by specifying so when creating an instance of the DataGridCollectionView.

Deleting Selected Items​

The IsDeleteCommandEnabled property indicates whether the ApplicationCommands.Delete command is enabled. When set to true, all selected items will be deleted when the delete key is pressed. The DeletingSelectedItems event, which is raised prior to deleting the items, allows the operation to be canceled by setting the Abort property, which is received in the event arguments, to true. By default, when an error occurs while deleting an item, the item will be skipped and the operation will continue to the next item. By handling the DeletingSelectedItemError event, this behavior can be modified to either abort the entire operation, retry deleting the item that caused the error, or skip the item (see Example 9). Once the items have been deleted, the SelectedItemsDeleted event will be raised to signal the end of the operation.

Examples

All examples in this topic assume that the grid is bound to the Orders table of the Northwind database, unless stated otherwise.

Example 1: Binding to a data table
<Grid xmlns:xcdg="http://schemas.xceed.com/wpf/xaml/datagrid">
  <Grid.Resources>      
  <xcdg:DataGridCollectionViewSource x:Key="cvs_orders"
                                  Source="{Binding Source={x:Static Application.Current},
                                                      Path=Orders}"/>
  </Grid.Resources>
  <xcdg:DataGridControl x:Name="OrdersGrid"
                        ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource cvs_orders}}"/>
</Grid>
Example 2: Binding to an array
<Grid xmlns:s="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
      xmlns:xcdg="http://schemas.xceed.com/wpf/xaml/datagrid">                    
  <Grid.Resources>
  <x:Array x:Key="data_list" Type="{x:Type s:String}">
    <s:String>Sunday</s:String>
    <s:String>Monday</s:String>
    <s:String>Tuesday</s:String>
    <s:String>Wednesday</s:String>
    <s:String>Thursday</s:String>
    <s:String>Friday</s:String>
    <s:String>Saturday</s:String>
  </x:Array>
  </Grid.Resources>
  <xcdg:DataGridControl x:Name="OrdersGrid"
                        ItemsSource="{StaticResource data_list}"/>
</Grid>
Example 3: Retrieving values from the current item

The following example demonstrates how to retrieve the value of the ShipCountry and ShipCity properties of the current item and display them in TextBlocks located above the grid. Note that an item in a grid must be current in order for the information to be displayed.

<Grid xmlns:xcdg="http://schemas.xceed.com/wpf/xaml/datagrid">
  <Grid.Resources>
    <xcdg:DataGridCollectionViewSource x:Key="cvs_orders"
                                    Source="{Binding Source={x:Static Application.Current},
                                                      Path=Orders}"/>
  </Grid.Resources>
  <DockPanel>  
      <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" DockPanel.Dock="Top">
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding ElementName=OrdersGrid, Path=CurrentItem[ShipCountry]}"/>
        <TextBlock Text=" - "/>
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding ElementName=OrdersGrid, Path=CurrentItem[ShipCity]}"/>
      </StackPanel>   
      <xcdg:DataGridControl x:Name="OrdersGrid"
                            ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource cvs_orders}}"
                            DockPanel.Dock="Bottom">
      </xcdg:DataGridControl>
  </DockPanel>
</Grid>
Example 4: Providing unbound data

The following example demonstrates how to add Person data to a custom ObservableCollection of Person objects.

<Grid xmlns:xcdg="http://schemas.xceed.com/wpf/xaml/datagrid"
      xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Xceed.Wpf.Documentation"
      xmlns:scm="clr-namespace:System.ComponentModel;assembly=WindowsBase">
      <Grid.Resources>
      <local:PersonObservableCollection x:Key="personData">
        <local:Person FirstName="Jenny"
                      LastName="Beland"
                      Occupation="Writer"/>
        <local:Person FirstName="Francois"
                      LastName="Carignan"
                      Occupation="Developer"/>
        <local:Person FirstName="Pascal"
                      LastName="Bourque"
                      Occupation="Developer"/>
        <local:Person FirstName="Michel"
                      LastName="Fortin"
                      Occupation="Developer"/>
        <local:Person FirstName="Marc"
                      LastName="Laroche"
                      Occupation="Developer"/>
        <local:Person FirstName="Pierre-Luc"
                      LastName="Ledoux"
                      Occupation="Developer"/>
        <local:Person FirstName="Mathieu"
                      LastName="Drimonakos"
                      Occupation="TechnicalSupport"/>
        <local:Person FirstName="Catherine"
                      LastName="Sauzede"
                      Occupation="Infograph"/>
      </local:PersonObservableCollection>
      <xcdg:DataGridCollectionViewSource x:Key="cvs_person"
                                          ItemType="{x:Type local:Person}"
                                          Source="{StaticResource personData}">
          <xcdg:DataGridCollectionViewSource.GroupDescriptions>
            <xcdg:DataGridGroupDescription PropertyName="Occupation"/>
          </xcdg:DataGridCollectionViewSource.GroupDescriptions>
          <xcdg:DataGridCollectionViewSource.SortDescriptions>
            <scm:SortDescription PropertyName="Occupation"
                                  Direction="Ascending"/>
          </xcdg:DataGridCollectionViewSource.SortDescriptions>
        </xcdg:DataGridCollectionViewSource>
      </Grid.Resources>
    <xcdg:DataGridControl x:Name="PersonGrid"
                          ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource cvs_person}}"/>
 </Grid>
Example 5: Binding to a LINQ table

The following example demonstrates how to bind a grid to a LINQ table and submit any modifications made to the data items using the SubmitChanges method.

This example assumes that a new LINQ to SQL Classes item named Northwind.dbml has been added to the project and that it contains the Orders, Customers, and Shippers tables. The Northwind.designer.cs that is created at the same time represents the NorthwindDataContext and should automatically contain all the relevant members. It also assumes that a property named LinqDataContext that returns a new instance of the NorthwindDataContext exists in the App.xaml.cs code-behind file.

<Grid xmlns:xcdg="http://schemas.xceed.com/wpf/xaml/datagrid"
      xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Xceed.Wpf.Documentation">
    <Grid.Resources>
      <xcdg:DataGridCollectionViewSource x:Key="cvs_orders"
                                        Source="{Binding Source={x:Static Application.Current},
                                                          Path=LinqDataContext.Orders}"/>
      <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:Shipper}">
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding CompanyName}"/>
      </DataTemplate>
      <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:Customer}">
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding CompanyName}"/>
      </DataTemplate>
      <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:Employee}">
        <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
          <TextBlock Text="{Binding FirstName}"/>
          <TextBlock Text=" " />
          <TextBlock Text="{Binding LastName}"/>
        </StackPanel>
      </DataTemplate>
      <xcdg:CellEditor x:Key="employeeEditor">
        <xcdg:CellEditor.EditTemplate>
          <DataTemplate>
            <ComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding Source={x:Static Application.Current},
                                            Path=LinqDataContext.Employees}"
                      SelectedItem="{xcdg:CellEditorBinding}"/>
          </DataTemplate>
        </xcdg:CellEditor.EditTemplate>
      </xcdg:CellEditor>
      <xcdg:CellEditor x:Key="customerEditor">
        <xcdg:CellEditor.EditTemplate>
          <DataTemplate>
            <ComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding Source={x:Static Application.Current},
                                            Path=LinqDataContext.Customers}"
                      SelectedItem="{xcdg:CellEditorBinding}"/>
          </DataTemplate>
        </xcdg:CellEditor.EditTemplate>
      </xcdg:CellEditor>
      <xcdg:CellEditor x:Key="shipperEditor">
        <xcdg:CellEditor.EditTemplate>
          <DataTemplate>
            <ComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding Source={x:Static Application.Current}, Path=LinqDataContext.Shippers}"
                      SelectedItem="{xcdg:CellEditorBinding}"/>
          </DataTemplate>
        </xcdg:CellEditor.EditTemplate>
      </xcdg:CellEditor>
    </Grid.Resources>
    <DockPanel>
      <Button Content="Save Modifications"
              Click="SaveModifications"
              DockPanel.Dock="Top" />
      <xcdg:DataGridControl x:Name="OrdersGrid"
                            ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource cvs_orders}}">
        <xcdg:DataGridControl.Columns>
          <xcdg:Column FieldName="OrderID"
                      Visible="False"/>
          <xcdg:Column FieldName="EmployeeID"
                      Visible="False"/>
          <xcdg:Column FieldName="Employee"
                      CellEditor="{StaticResource employeeEditor}"/>
          <xcdg:Column FieldName="CustomerID"
                      Visible="False"/>
          <xcdg:Column FieldName="Customer"
                      CellEditor="{StaticResource customerEditor}"
                      Title="Company Name"/>
          <xcdg:Column FieldName="ShipVia"
                      Visible="False"/>
          <xcdg:Column FieldName="Shipper"
                      CellEditor="{StaticResource shipperEditor}"/>
        </xcdg:DataGridControl.Columns>
        <xcdg:DataGridControl.View>
          <xcdg:TableView>
            <xcdg:TableView.FixedFooters>
              <DataTemplate>
                <xcdg:InsertionRow/>
              </DataTemplate>
            </xcdg:TableView.FixedFooters>
          </xcdg:TableView>
        </xcdg:DataGridControl.View>
      </xcdg:DataGridControl>
    </DockPanel>
  </Grid>
Example 6: Binding to a LINQ query (SQL)

The following example demonstrates how to bind a grid to an SQL LINQ query and submit any modifications made to the data items using the SubmitChanges method.

tip

Although existing data items can be modified and the changes committed, it is not possible to insert new data items.

This example assumes that a new LINQ to SQL Classes item named Northwind.dbml has been added to the project and that it contains the Orders, Customers, and Shippers tables. The Northwind.designer.cs that is created at the same time represents the NorthwindDataContext and should automatically contain all the relevant members. It also assumes that a property named OrdersQuery that returns a new new query based on the value selected in the combo box.

The Window1 class implements INotifyPropertyChanged so that the DataGridCollectionViewSource can be notified when the query changes in order to refresh its content.

<Grid xmlns:xcdg="http://schemas.xceed.com/wpf/xaml/datagrid"
      xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Xceed.Wpf.Documentation">
  <Grid.Resources>
    <xcdg:DataGridCollectionViewSource x:Key="cvs_orders"
                                      Source="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type Window}},
                                                      Path=OrdersQuery}">
      <xcdg:DataGridCollectionViewSource.GroupDescriptions>
        <xcdg:DataGridGroupDescription PropertyName="Shipper"/>
      </xcdg:DataGridCollectionViewSource.GroupDescriptions>
    </xcdg:DataGridCollectionViewSource>
    <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:Shipper}">
      <TextBlock Text="{Binding CompanyName}"/>
    </DataTemplate>
    <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:Customer}">
      <TextBlock Text="{Binding CompanyName}"/>
    </DataTemplate>
    <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:Employee}">
      <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding FirstName}"/>
        <TextBlock Text=" " />
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding LastName}"/>
      </StackPanel>
    </DataTemplate>       
  </Grid.Resources>
  <DockPanel>
    <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"
                DockPanel.Dock="Top">
      <Button Content="Save Modifications"
              Click="SaveModifications"/>
      <ComboBox x:Name="ShipperCombo"
                ItemsSource="{Binding Source={x:Static Application.Current}, Path=LinqDataContext.Shippers}"
                SelectionChanged="ShipperSelectionChanged"/>
    </StackPanel>
    <xcdg:DataGridControl x:Name="OrdersGrid"
                          ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource cvs_orders}}">
      <xcdg:DataGridControl.Columns>
        <xcdg:Column FieldName="Shipper"
                    VisiblePosition="0"/>
        <xcdg:Column FieldName="OrderID"
                    Visible="False"/>
        <xcdg:Column FieldName="EmployeeID"
                    Visible="False"/>
        <xcdg:Column FieldName="CustomerID"
                    Visible="False"/>
        <xcdg:Column FieldName="Customer"
                    Title="Company Name"/>
        <xcdg:Column FieldName="ShipVia"
                    Visible="False"/>
      </xcdg:DataGridControl.Columns>
    </xcdg:DataGridControl>
  </DockPanel>
</Grid>
Example 7: Binding to a LINQ query (XML)

The following example demonstrates how to bind a grid to an XML query on an XDocument that loads the XML version of the Orders table of the Northwind database.

tip

The content of the resulting grid will not be editable.

<Grid xmlns:xcdg="http://schemas.xceed.com/wpf/xaml/datagrid">
  <Grid.Resources>
    <xcdg:DataGridCollectionViewSource x:Key="cvs_orders"
                    Source="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type Window}},
                                    Path=XmlData}"/>
  </Grid.Resources>

  <xcdg:DataGridControl x:Name="OrdersGrid"
                      ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource cvs_orders}}"/>
</Grid>
Example 8: Deleting selected items

The following example demonstrates how to delete the selected items and handle the DeletingSelectedItemError and DeletingSelectedItems events.

<Grid xmlns:xcdg="http://schemas.xceed.com/wpf/xaml/datagrid">
  <Grid.Resources>
    <xcdg:DataGridCollectionViewSource x:Key="cvs_orders"
                                        Source="{Binding Source={x:Static Application.Current}, Path=Orders}" />      
  </Grid.Resources>
  <xcdg:DataGridControl x:Name="OrdersGrid"
                        ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource cvs_orders}}"
                        IsDeleteCommandEnabled="True"
                        DeletingSelectedItemError="OrdersGrid_DeletingSelectedItemError"
                        DeletingSelectedItems="OrdersGrid_DeletingSelectedItems"/>       
</Grid>