Generating columns dynamically in the WPF DataGrid?

Question

<DataGrid ItemsSource="{Binding}" AutoGenerateColumns="False">
  <DataGrid.Columns>
    <DataGridTextColumn Header="First Name" Binding="{Binding FirstName}" />
  </DataGrid.Columns>
</DataGrid>

In the above snippet the DataGrid columns are hard coded in the XAML.

Is it possible to have the column definitions be defined elsewhere, ideally in the MVVM View-Model, so that the columns can be defined and redefined on the fly?

Answer 1

Using the Microsoft DataGrid with the MVVM pattern in the following way works for me because the DataGrid automatically generates the columns based on a DataTable.

In XAML I include the DataGrid:

<WpfToolkit:DataGrid 
    ItemsSource="{Binding Path=GridData, Mode=OneWay}" > 
</WpfToolkit:DataGrid> 

In my view model I expose a DataView:

public DataView GridData 
{ 
  get 
  { 
    DataSet ds = new DataSet("MyDataSet"); 

    // everything hard-coded for this example 
    int to = 12;
    int ps = 2048;
    string sv = "10";
    string st = "Open";
    string wsid = "ZAMBONI";

    DataTable dt = new DataTable("MyDataTable");
    DataColumn propertyName = new DataColumn("Property");
    DataColumn propertyValue = new DataColumn("Value");
    dt.Columns.Add(propertyName);
    dt.Columns.Add(propertyValue);
    dt.Rows.Add("Connection timeout", to);
    dt.Rows.Add("Packet size", ps);
    dt.Rows.Add("Server version", sv);
    dt.Rows.Add("State", st);
    dt.Rows.Add("Worksation id", wsid);
    ds.Tables.Add(dt);

    return ds.Tables[0].DefaultView; 
  } 
}