Problem with static data binding in wpf - wpf

Question

I'm relatively new to wpf and I quite don't understand binding yet.
I want to have several combo boxes in my application with the same items. The basic solution would be to copy paste but that just isn't good practice. So I thought to put a static resource with the content I want and bind all combo boxes to it. It compiles and runs well but the combo box is empty.
Here's the code:
<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<ItemsControl x:Key="Validations">
<ItemsControl.Items>
<ComboBoxItem>String</ComboBoxItem>
<ComboBoxItem>Numeric</ComboBoxItem>
</ItemsControl.Items>
</ItemsControl>
and here's the combo box:
<ComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource Validations}}"/>
I know the solution for this is probably simple but I haven't figured it out yet. I'll keep trying ;)
Thanks

Answer 1

Make the resource a list of strings, not a visual element, then use the StaticResource extension to assign it to the ItemsSource property, like so:
<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
<Window.Resources>
<x:ArrayExtension x:Key="Data" Type="{x:Type sys:String}">
<sys:String>String1</sys:String>
<sys:String>String2</sys:String>
<sys:String>String3</sys:String>
</x:ArrayExtension>
</Window.Resources>
<Grid>
<StackPanel>
<ComboBox ItemsSource="{StaticResource Data}"/>
<ComboBox ItemsSource="{StaticResource Data}"/>
<ComboBox ItemsSource="{StaticResource Data}"/>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
</Window>
Note the definition of the xmlns:sys namespace (maps to namespace System in assembly mscorlib) and the use of the x:ArrayExtension element to declare a simply array in XAML.