C#, WPF, bind List<string> to DataGrid

Question

I have trouble to bind a List to a DataGrid. It should be as simple as possible. I'm new to WPF and this is for my personal education.

I have a View(Editor),ViewModel(VMText) and a Data(JustText) class.

My source so far:

JustText.cs

namespace Model
{
    public class Text
    {
        private string _code;
        public string Code
        {
            get { return _code;  }
            set { _code = value; }
        }

        public Text()
        {
            _code = "Hello World!\nHow you doin'?";
        }
    } 
}

VMText.cs

namespace ViewModel
{
    public class VMText
    {    
        private Model.Text _code;

        public List<string> Code
        {            
            get { return new List<string>(_code.Code.Split('\n'));        }
            set { _code.Code = System.String.Join("\n", value.ToArray()); }
        }

        private View.Editor editor;

        public VMText(View.Editor editor)
        {
            _code = new Model.Text();
            this.editor = editor; 
        }
    }
}

Editor.xaml

<Window x:Class="View.Editor"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
        xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
        xmlns:local="clr-namespace:View"
        mc:Ignorable="d"
        Title="Editor" Height="240.024" Width="269.895">
    <Grid Background="#FF292929" Margin="0,0,-6.8,0.4">
        <DataGrid x:Name="dataGrid" 
                  HorizontalAlignment="Left" 
                  Margin="0,0,0,0" 
                  VerticalAlignment="Top"
                  Width="200pt"
                  Height="100pt"
                  DataContext="{Binding vmText}">
            <DataGrid.Columns>
                <DataGridTextColumn Binding="{Binding Code, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" Foreground="Black" Width="60" Header="Test" IsReadOnly="false" />
            </DataGrid.Columns>
        </DataGrid>
    </Grid>
</Window>

Editor.xaml.cs

namespace View
{
    public partial class Editor : Window
    {
        private ViewModel.VMText vmText;

        #region Constructor

        public Editor()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            vmText = new ViewModel.VMText(this);
            DataContext = vmText;
        }

        #endregion
    }
}

I just want to show List which is created in VMText in one column in the DataGrid

Answer 1

I guess you simply want to display the strings in the Code source collection property of the view model in the DataGrid.

You should then bind the ItemsSource property of the DataGrid to the Code source property of the view model and then bind the DataGridTextColumn to the strings in the Code list itself. You just have to modify the XAML markup of your view a bit to be able to see the strings. Try this:

<DataGrid x:Name="dataGrid" 
              HorizontalAlignment="Left" 
              Margin="0,0,0,0" 
              VerticalAlignment="Top"
              Width="200pt"
              Height="100pt"
              ItemsSource="{Binding Code}"
              AutoGenerateColumns="False">
    <DataGrid.Columns>
        <DataGridTextColumn Binding="{Binding}" 
                                Foreground="Black" Width="60" Header="Test" IsReadOnly="false" />
    </DataGrid.Columns>
</DataGrid>

Answer 2

You should implement INotifyPropertyChanged to notify binding that property changed. Also for the collections look at ObservableCollection instead of List.