WPF Data Templates

WPF Data Templates are used to describe how data objects shall be rendered on the UI. Because Data Templates build a central concept in WPF you will need to understand and make use of them.

A common use case of Data Templates is the definition of an item’s DataTemplate for an ItemsControl.

Example for a ListBox:

<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Students}">
    <ListBox.ItemTemplate>
        <DataTemplate>
            <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
                <TextBlock Text="{Binding LastName}"/>
                <TextBlock Text=", "/>
                <TextBlock Text="{Binding FirstName}"/>
            </StackPanel>
        </DataTemplate>
    </ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

The DataTemplate definition describes how each Student object shall be rendered. In our example we display the LastName property followed by a ‘, ‘ and the FirstName property.