Presenting data in a grid

Some types of data are best shown in a multi row, multi column grid. WPF 4 added support for the DataGrid control, which is capable of showing a collection of objects in tabular form, with many customizations possible, out-of-the-box or programmatically.

Getting ready

Make sure Visual Studio is up and running.

How to do it...

We'll create an application that shows some personal information in a grid layout, showing some of the features of the DataGrid control.

1. Create a new WPF application named CH06.DataGridDemo.

2. Open MainWindow.xaml. Add a DataGrid to the existing Grid and bind it to whatever DataContext is available:

   <DataGrid ItemsSource="{Binding}">
   </DataGrid>

3. The data we're going to use is a simple personal information record. Add a new class named PersonInfo, and implement as follows:

   enum Gender {
      Unknown,
      Male,
      Female
   }
    
   class PersonInfo {
      public string FirstName { get; set; }
      public string LastName { get; set; }
      public string Email...