TreeView Class (System.Windows.Controls)

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Microsoft Visual Studio 2008/.NET Framework 3.5

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.NET Framework Class Library

TreeView Class

Updated: February 2009

Represents a control that displays hierarchical data in a tree structure that has items that can expand and collapse.

Namespace: System.Windows.Controls
Assembly: PresentationFramework (in PresentationFramework.dll)
XMLNS for XAML: http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation, http://schemas.microsoft.com/netfx/2007/xaml/presentation

Syntax

Visual Basic (Declaration)

<StyleTypedPropertyAttribute(Property := "ItemContainerStyle", StyleTargetType := GetType(TreeViewItem))> _
Public Class TreeView _
    Inherits ItemsControl

Visual Basic (Usage)

Dim instance As TreeView

[StyleTypedPropertyAttribute(Property = "ItemContainerStyle", StyleTargetType = typeof(TreeViewItem))]
public class TreeView : ItemsControl

Visual C++

[StyleTypedPropertyAttribute(Property = L"ItemContainerStyle", StyleTargetType = typeof(TreeViewItem))]
public ref class TreeView : public ItemsControl

JScript

public class TreeView extends ItemsControl

XAML Object Element Usage

<TreeView>
  Items
</TreeView>

Remarks

Content Model: TreeView is a ItemsControl. Its content properties are Items and ItemsSource. For more information on the content model for TreeView, see Controls Content Model Overview.

The following illustration shows a simple TreeView.

TreeView illustration

The contents of a TreeView are TreeViewItem controls that can contain rich content, such as Button and Image controls. A TreeViewItem can contain one or more TreeViewItem objects as its descendants. A TreeView is defined as a hierarchy of TreeViewItem objects.

A TreeView can populate its tree by binding to a data source and using HierarchicalDataTemplate objects. Examples of data sources include XmlDataProvider and ObservableCollection<(Of <(T>)>) objects. For an example, see Displaying Hierarchical Data Sample.

Displaying a large number of items may cause performance issues. See Optimizing Performance: Controls for more information. To improve the performance of a TreeView, see How to: Improve the Performance of a TreeView.

Dependency properties for this control might be set by the control’s default style. If a property is set by a default style, the property might change from its default value when the control appears in the application. The default style is determined by which desktop theme is used when the application is running. For more information, see Themes.

For more information about the TreeView control, see the TreeView Overview.

Examples

The following example shows how to create a TreeView.

XAML

<TreeView>
  <TreeViewItem Header="Employee1">
    <TreeViewItem Header="Jesper"/>
    <TreeViewItem Header="Aaberg"/>
    <TreeViewItem Header="12345"/>
  </TreeViewItem>
 <TreeViewItem Header="Employee2">
    <TreeViewItem Header="Dominik"/>
    <TreeViewItem Header="Paiha"/>
    <TreeViewItem Header="98765"/>
  </TreeViewItem>
</TreeView>

More Code

How to: Create Simple or Complex TreeViews	This example shows how to create simple or complex TreeView controls.
How to: Use SelectedValue, SelectedValuePath, and SelectedItem	This example shows how to use the SelectedValue and SelectedValuePath properties to specify a value for the SelectedItem of a TreeView.

Inheritance Hierarchy

System..::.Object
  System.Windows.Threading..::.DispatcherObject
    System.Windows..::.DependencyObject
      System.Windows.Media..::.Visual
        System.Windows..::.UIElement
          System.Windows..::.FrameworkElement
            System.Windows.Controls..::.Control
              System.Windows.Controls..::.ItemsControl
                System.Windows.Controls..::.TreeView

Thread Safety

Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.

Platforms

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

Version Information