How to: Produce a Value Based on a List of Bound Items
MultiBinding allows you to bind a binding target property to a list of source properties and then apply logic to produce a value with the given inputs. This example demonstrates how to use MultiBinding.
Example
In the following example, NameListData refers to a collection of PersonName objects, which are objects that contain two properties, firstName and lastName. The following example produces a TextBlock that shows the first and last names of a person with the last name first.
<Window
xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="https://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:c="clr-namespace:SDKSample"
x:Class="SDKSample.Window1"
Width="400"
Height="280"
Title="MultiBinding Sample">
<Window.Resources>
<c:NameList x:Key="NameListData"/>
<c:NameConverter x:Key="myNameConverter"/>
...
</Window.Resources>
...
<TextBlock Name="textBox2" DataContext="{StaticResource NameListData}">
<TextBlock.Text>
<MultiBinding Converter="{StaticResource myNameConverter}"
ConverterParameter="FormatLastFirst">
<Binding Path="FirstName"/>
<Binding Path="LastName"/>
</MultiBinding>
</TextBlock.Text>
</TextBlock>
...
</Window>
To understand how the last-name-first format is produced, let's take a look at the implementation of the NameConverter:
public class NameConverter : IMultiValueConverter
{
public object Convert(object[] values, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
{
string name;
switch ((string)parameter)
{
case "FormatLastFirst":
name = values[1] + ", " + values[0];
break;
case "FormatNormal":
default:
name = values[0] + " " + values[1];
break;
}
return name;
}
public object[] ConvertBack(object value, Type[] targetTypes, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
{
string[] splitValues = ((string)value).Split(' ');
return splitValues;
}
}
Public Class NameConverter
Implements IMultiValueConverter
Public Function Convert1(ByVal values() As Object, _
ByVal targetType As System.Type, _
ByVal parameter As Object, _
ByVal culture As System.Globalization.CultureInfo) As Object _
Implements System.Windows.Data.IMultiValueConverter.Convert
Select Case CStr(parameter)
Case "FormatLastFirst"
Return (values(1) & ", " & values(0))
End Select
Return (values(0) & " " & values(1))
End Function
Public Function ConvertBack1(ByVal value As Object, _
ByVal targetTypes() As System.Type, _
ByVal parameter As Object, _
ByVal culture As System.Globalization.CultureInfo) As Object() _
Implements System.Windows.Data.IMultiValueConverter.ConvertBack
Return CStr(value).Split(New Char() {" "c})
End Function
End Class
NameConverter implements the IMultiValueConverter interface. NameConverter takes the values from the individual bindings and stores them in the values object array. The order in which the Binding elements appear under the MultiBinding element is the order in which those values are stored in the array. The value of the ConverterParameter attribute is referenced by the parameter argument of the Converter method, which performs a switch on the parameter to determine how to format the name.
For the complete sample, see Implementing Parameterized MultiBinding Sample.
For another example of an IMultiValueConverter implementation, see Data Binding Demo.