ItemsControl::Items Property
Gets the collection used to generate the content of the ItemsControl.
Assembly: PresentationFramework (in PresentationFramework.dll)
XMLNS for XAML: http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation, http://schemas.microsoft.com/netfx/2007/xaml/presentation
[BindableAttribute(true)] public: property ItemCollection^ Items { ItemCollection^ get (); }
<object> OneOrMoreElements </object>
XAML Values
Property Value
Type: System.Windows.Controls::ItemCollectionThe collection that is used to generate the content of the ItemsControl. The default is an empty collection.
This property may be used to add items to an ItemsControl. Adding a child to an ItemsControl object implicitly adds it to the ItemCollection for the ItemsControl object.
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This property can only be set in Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) via the collection syntax shown, or by accessing the collection object and using its various methods such as Add. The property to access the collection object itself is read-only, and the collection itself is read-write. |
Note that you use either the Items or the ItemsSource property to specify the collection that should be used to generate the content of your ItemsControl. When the ItemsSource property is set, the Items collection is made read-only and fixed-size.
When ItemsSource is in use, setting the ItemsSource property to nullptr removes the collection and restores usage to Items, which will be an empty ItemCollection.
The following examples demonstrate binding data to an ItemsControl. The first example creates a class called MyData that is a simple string collection.
The following example binds the ItemsSource object of an ItemsControl to MyData.
<!--Create an instance of MyData as a resource.--> <src:MyData x:Key="dataList"/> ... <ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource dataList}}"/>
The following illustration shows the ListBox control created in the previous example.

The following example demonstrates how to populate an ItemsControl by using the Items property. The example adds the following different types of items to the ListBox:
<!--Create a ListBox that contains a string, a Rectangle, a Panel, and a DateTime object. These items can be accessed via the Items property.--> <ListBox xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib" Name="simpleListBox"> <!-- The <ListBox.Items> element is implicitly used.--> This is a string in a ListBox <sys:DateTime>2004/3/4 13:6:55</sys:DateTime> <Rectangle Height="40" Width="40" Fill="Blue"/> <StackPanel Name="itemToSelect"> <Ellipse Height="40" Fill="Blue"/> <TextBlock>Text below an Ellipse</TextBlock> </StackPanel> <TextBlock>String in a TextBlock</TextBlock> <!--</ListBox.Items>--> </ListBox>
The following illustration shows the ListBox created in the previous example.

Note that the ItemCollection is a view, so you can use the view-related functionalities such as sorting, filtering, and grouping.
For example, if you have an instance of a ListBox, myListBox, you can do the following to sort the content of the ListBox. In this example, Content is the name of the property to sort by.
Note that when you do this, if the control is bound to a collection directly, the default collection view is used, and the sort criteria are applied to all other controls bound to the same collection directly. The view will not be the default view if the ItemsSource property is bound to a CollectionViewSource.
If your ItemsControl is bound directly to a collection, then you can do the following to get the default view:
Alternately, you can specify filtering, sorting, and grouping criteria in XAML or code by using a CollectionViewSource.
Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2
The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.
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