How can I data bind a list of strings to a ListBox in WPF/WP7?

Question

I am trying to bind a list of string values to a listbox so that their values are listed line by line. Right now I use this:

<ListBox Margin="20" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=PersonNames}">     <ListBox.ItemTemplate>         <DataTemplate>             <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">                 <TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Id}"></TextBlock>             </StackPanel>         </DataTemplate>     </ListBox.ItemTemplate> </ListBox> 

But I don't know what I am supposed to put into the textblock, instead of Id, since they are all string values, not custom classes.

Also it complains not having to find the PersonNames when I have it inside MainPage, as MainPage.PersonNames.

I set the data context to:

DataContext="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}}" 

I am doing it wrong?

Answer 1

If simply put that your ItemsSource is bound like this:

YourListBox.ItemsSource = new List<String> { "One", "Two", "Three" }; 

Your XAML should look like:

<ListBox Margin="20" Name="YourListBox">     <ListBox.ItemTemplate>          <DataTemplate>              <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">                  <TextBlock Text="{Binding}" />              </StackPanel>          </DataTemplate>      </ListBox.ItemTemplate>  </ListBox>  

Update:

This is a solution when using a DataContext. Following code is the viewmodel you will be passing to the DataContext of the page and the setting of the DataContext:

public class MyViewModel {     public List<String> Items     {         get { return new List<String> { "One", "Two", "Three" }; }     } }  //This can be done in the Loaded event of the page: DataContext = new MyViewModel(); 

Your XAML now looks like this:

<ListBox Margin="20" ItemsSource="{Binding Items}">     <ListBox.ItemTemplate>         <DataTemplate>             <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">                 <TextBlock Text="{Binding}" />             </StackPanel>         </DataTemplate>     </ListBox.ItemTemplate> </ListBox> 

The advantage of this approach is that you can put a lot more properties or complex objects in the MyViewModel class and extract them in the XAML. For example to pass a List of Person objects:

public class ViewModel {     public List<Person> Items     {         get         {             return new List<Person>             {                 new Person { Name = "P1", Age = 1 },                 new Person { Name = "P2", Age = 2 }             };         }     } }  public class Person {     public string Name { get; set; }     public int Age { get; set; } } 

And the XAML:

<ListBox Margin="20" ItemsSource="{Binding Items}">     <ListBox.ItemTemplate>         <DataTemplate>             <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">                 <TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Name}" />                 <TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Age}" />             </StackPanel>         </DataTemplate>     </ListBox.ItemTemplate> </ListBox> 

Hope this helps! :)