My WPF application generates sets of data which may have a different number of columns each time. Included in the output is a description of each column that will be used to apply formatting. A simplified version of the output might be something like:
class Data
{
IList<ColumnDescription> ColumnDescriptions { get; set; }
string[][] Rows { get; set; }
}
This class is set as the DataContext on a WPF DataGrid but I actually create the columns programmatically:
for (int i = 0; i < data.ColumnDescriptions.Count; i++)
{
dataGrid.Columns.Add(new DataGridTextColumn
{
Header = data.ColumnDescriptions[i].Name,
Binding = new Binding(string.Format("[{0}]", i))
});
}
Is there any way to replace this code with data bindings in the XAML file instead?
Best Answer
Here's a workaround for Binding Columns in the DataGrid. Since the Columns property is ReadOnly, like everyone noticed, I made an Attached Property called BindableColumns which updates the Columns in the DataGrid everytime the collection changes through the CollectionChanged event.
If we have this Collection of DataGridColumn's
Then we can bind BindableColumns to the ColumnCollection like this
The Attached Property BindableColumns