How do bind a List<object> to a DataGrid in Silverlight?
- by Ben McCormack
I'm trying to create a simple Silverlight application that involves parsing a CSV file and displaying the results in a DataGrid. I've configured my application to parse the CSV file to return a List<CSVTransaction> that contains properties with names: Date, Payee, Category, Memo, Inflow, Outflow.
The user clicks a button to select a file to parse, at which point I want the DataGrid object to be populated. I'm thinking I want to use data binding, but I can't seem to figure out how to get the data to show up in the grid.
My XAML for the DataGrid looks like this:
<data:DataGrid IsEnabled="False" x:Name="TransactionsPreview">
<data:DataGrid.Columns>
<data:DataGridTextColumn Header="Date"
Binding="{Binding Date}" />
<data:DataGridTextColumn Header="Payee"
Binding="{Binding Payee}"/>
<data:DataGridTextColumn Header="Category"
Binding="{Binding Category}"/>
<data:DataGridTextColumn Header="Memo"
Binding="{Binding Memo}"/>
<data:DataGridTextColumn Header="Inflow"
Binding="{Binding Inflow}"/>
<data:DataGridTextColumn Header="Outflow"
Binding="{Binding Outflow}"/>
</data:DataGrid.Columns>
</data:DataGrid>
The code-behind for the xaml.cs file looks like this:
private void OpenCsvFile_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
try
{
CsvTransObject csvTO = new CsvTransObject.ParseCSV();
//This returns a List<CsvTransaction> and passes it
//to a method which is supposed to set the DataContext
//for the DataGrid to be equal to the list.
BindCsvTransactions(csvTO.CsvTransactions);
TransactionsPreview.IsEnabled = true;
MessageBox.Show("The CSV file has a valid header and has been loaded successfully.");
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
}
}
private void BindCsvTransactions(List<CsvTransaction> listYct)
{
TransactionsPreview.DataContext = listYct;
}
My thinking is to bind the CsvTransaction properties to each DataGridTextColumn in the XAML and then set the DataContext for the DataGrid to the List<CsvTransaction at run-time, but this isn't working.
Any ideas about how I might approach this (or do it better)?
