Filling In GroupBox - wpf

I have a groupbox that contains nested stack panels that aren't filling in the groupbox entirely. I would like to have all the stackpanels evenly spaced out filling in the entire groupbox. I have attempted changing the VerticalContentAlignment to Stretch for the groupbox, but that does not work.
<GroupBox>
<StackPanel>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Label Content="Test1" />
<Label Content="Test2"/>
</StackPanel>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Label Content="Test3" />
<Label Content="Test4"/>
</StackPanel>
</StackPanel>
</GroupBox

StackPanels by default only use as much space as is required to display whatever they contain. If you need different behavior you either need to roll your own version of a stackpanel or use another container. Both Grids/Dockpanels work fine as substitutes.

Related

Cannot align label in stackpanel

I'm not a wpf expert, so maybe the problem is really simple than appear. Anyway, I made a stackpanel with this structure:
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Label Content="Match" FontWeight="Bold"/>
<Label Content="Foo" HorizontalAlignment="Right"/>
</StackPanel>
How you can see I set the orientation to horizontal so I can have both label in the same row. I need also to align the second label "Foo" to right. I tried setting the HorizontalAlignment property, but, the label is stuck on the same position. What I can do for fix this?
The simplest answer is that you can't.
Stackpanel is made to stack things after each other.
You can do it either vertically of horizontally and you can align the stackpanel to the right or left but you cannot align the items inside it.
You can use Grid or another container instead.
<Grid>
<Label Content="Match" FontWeight="Bold" HorizontalAlignment="Left"/>
<Label Content="Foo" HorizontalAlignment="Right"/>
</Grid>
StackPanel does not support the individual alignment of the child controls. However you can set the alignment of the whole stackpanel. However its not the case here.
What you can do is put your labels in a Uniform Grid of 1 row and 2 columns.
<UniformGrid Rows="1" Columns="2">
<Label Content="Match" FontWeight="Bold"/>
<Label Content="Foo" HorizontalAlignment="Right"/>
</UniformGrid>

WPF: Aligning the base line of a Label and its TextBox

Let's say I have a simple TextBox next to a Label:
<StackPanel>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Label Margin="3">MyLabel</Label>
<TextBox Margin="3" Width="100">MyText</TextBox>
</StackPanel>
...
</StackPanel>
This yields the following result:
As you can see, the base lines of MyLabel and MyText are not aligned, which looks ugly. Of course, I could start playing around with the margins until they match up, but since this is such a common requirement I'm sure that WPF provides a much easier and more elegant solution, which I just haven't found yet...
This behaviour is, I think, caused by the fact that the TextBox defaults to a vertical alignment of Stretch, which causes it to fill the available space and have the extra couple of pixels under the text. If you use this instead:
<StackPanel>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Label >MyLabel</Label>
<TextBox VerticalAlignment="Center" Width="100">MyText</TextBox>
</StackPanel>
</StackPanel>
... you should see a cleaner result.
What do you think?
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Label Margin="3" VerticalContentAlignment="Center">MyLabel</Label>
<TextBox Margin="3" VerticalContentAlignment="Center" Width="100">MyText</TextBox>
</StackPanel>
I achieved that look in Kaxaml with:
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Label Margin="3" VerticalAlignment="Center">MyLabel</Label>
<TextBox Margin="3" Width="100" VerticalAlignment="Center">MyText</TextBox>
</StackPanel>
I know that this is an old answer, but for here's an example for those who seek another way, where you don't need to rely on a fixed textbox width:
Instead of StackPanel, use a DockPanel and .Dock.
This proves to be very handy when used inside a Grid.
<DockPanel Grid.Column="2" Grid.Row="2">
<Label Content="SomeTitle:" DockPanel.Dock="Left"></Label>
<TextBox x:Name="SomeValueTextBox" VerticalAlignment="Center" DockPanel.Dock="Right"></TextBox>
</DockPanel>
This question is not as trivial as it looks and the accepted answers lacks details. If you try custom heights with the controls, you will see issues.
First, this is the correct implementation as answered by User7116.
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Label Margin="3" VerticalAlignment="Center">MyLabel</Label>
<TextBox Margin="3" Width="100" VerticalAlignment="Center">MyText</TextBox>
</StackPanel>
The tricky part is that there two level of vertical alignments here so understand how the alignments works.
When we specify alignment for a control, we are telling it how to position itself in the parent container (See documentation). So when we specify VerticalAlignment="Center"> to the TextBox we are telling it that this TextBox should appear vertically centered in parent stackpanel.
Now the actual text inside that TextBox could also use vertical alignment within that TextBox! This is the 2nd level and actually quite tricky and is answered here.
If you experiment with setting the Label's height above to say 50 as well, you will see they will not align again. This is because Label is now taking larger area and its text inside that area is not vertical aligned so it doesn't look aligned again.
The code for above is:
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" VerticalAlignment="Center">
<Label Margin="3" VerticalAlignment="Center" Height="50">MyLabel</Label>
<TextBox Margin="3" VerticalAlignment="Center" Width="50" Height="50">MyText</TextBox>
</StackPanel>
Luckily when control height is default (like label control), it's just tall enough to contain the text so the inside alignment doesn't matter. But it comes into play if someone is setting custom heights for these controls and its better to understand how this works.

WrapPanel not wrapping when in a StackPanel with Horizontal orientation

The labels in the example below (WPF/XAML) just parade off the screen, no wrapping occurs. Removing the orientation works, but doesn't provided the needed functionality/look & feel. Any ideas how to make the WrapPanel wrap to the current size of the StackPanel?
<Window Height="300" Width="600">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<WrapPanel>
<Label Height="28" Name="label1" Width="120">First Name</Label>
<Label Height="28" Name="label2" Width="120">John</Label>
<Label Height="28" Name="label3" Width="120">Last Name</Label>
<Label Height="28" Name="label4" Width="120">Smith</Label>
<!-- ...more labels!... -->
</WrapPanel>
<!-- ...other controls/panels... -->
</StackPanel>
</Window>
You can bind the WrapPanel's MaxWidth to the StackPanel's ActualWidth.
I haven't tried this, but basically:
<WrapPanel MaxWidth="{Binding ActualWidth, ElementName=myStackPanel}"/>
What you're doing isn't possible because of the algorithm that StackPanel uses when doing horizontal layout. It's basically going to ask each child element how big it wants to be and however much space it asks for it's going to give it.
You would either need to:
Set a Width or MaxWidth on the WrapPanel.
Use a WrapPanel as the outer panel in place of the StackPanel.

Aligning columns without WPF Grid

I am looking for a good way to design a multi-column layout which reflows the controls in the columns according to the space available. I have a list of labels and fields which display information, and sometimes the view they are contained in needs to be tall and skinny, other times short and wide.
A simple solution is to use a WrapPanel:
<WrapPanel Orientation="Vertical">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Label>Some label:</Label>
<TextBlock>Some value</TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Label>Some other label:</Label>
<TextBlock>Some bigger value</TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Label>A:</Label>
<TextBlock>B</TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
</WrapPanel>
I want the labels and values all to line up horizontally into columns, without specifying a static width. Right now the Labels and TextBlocks are just sized based on their content.
Did you try to add WrapPanel as an ItemsContainer in ListBox?
<ListBox>
<ListBox.ItemsContainer>
<WrapPanel />
</ListBox.ItemsContainer>
</ListBox>

WPF Grid Column MaxWidth not enforced

This problem stems from not being able to get my TextBlock to wrap. Basically as a last-ditch attempt I am setting MaxWidth on my container grid's columns. I was surprised to find that my child label and textbox still do whatever they want (bad children, BAD) and are not limited by my grid column's MaxWidth="200".
What I'm really trying to do is let my TextBlock fill available width and wrap if necessary. So far after trying many variations of HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" on every known parent in the universe, nothing works, except setting an explicit MaxWidth="400" or whatever number on the TextBlock. This is not good because I need the TextBlock to fill available width, not be limited by some fixed number. Thanks!
<ItemsControl>
<ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
<ItemsPanelTemplate>
<StackPanel />
</ItemsPanelTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition MaxWidth="200" SharedSizeGroup="A" />
<ColumnDefinition MaxWidth="200" SharedSizeGroup="B" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Label VerticalAlignment="Top" Margin="0 5 0 0" Grid.Column="0" Style="{StaticResource LabelStyle}" Width="Auto" Content="{Binding Value.Summary}" />
<TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Margin="5,8,5,8" FontWeight="Normal"
Background="AliceBlue"
Foreground="Black" Text="{Binding Value.Description}"
HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
TextWrapping="Wrap" Height="Auto" />
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
I've tried to replicate your problem by pasting everything between your Grid elements in to Kaxaml but everything wraps as you would expect it to. (I inserted regular strings where you were doing bindings and removed the Label style).
It could be that the problem is higher up the tree.
I'd suggest pasting chunks in to Kaxaml or similar to test and see which parent breaks your UI.
I provided an answer to this question, only it was using an ListView instead of an ItemsControl but the issue is likely the same. There is probably a ScrollViewer surrounding your ItemPresenter and you need to edit a copy of the ItemsControl template.
WPF ListView TextBlock TextWrapping

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