Create a Dictionary in xaml?

Question

Pseudo example:

<Window>
  <Window.Tag>
    <x:Dictionary KeyType="{x:Type sys:String}" ValueType="{x:Type sys:Int32}">
        <sys:DictionaryEntry Entry="{sys:DictionaryEntry Key0, 000}"/>
        <sys:DictionaryEntry Key="key1" Value="111"/>
        <sys:DictionaryEntry>
          <sys:DictionaryEntry.Key>
            <sys:String>Key2<sys:String>
          </sys:DictionaryEntry.Key>          
          <sys:DictionaryEntry.Value>
            <sys:Int32>222</sys:Int32>            
          </sys:DictionaryEntry.Value>
        </sys:DictionaryEntry>
    </x:Dictionary />    
  </Window.Tag>
</Window>

More up-to-date discussion at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2494823/binding-dictionaryt-to-a-wpf-listbox — Ben, Feb 26 '18 at 19:14

score 34 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 23 '10 at 16:16

34

You can't use the Dictionary<TKey, TValue> class directly in XAML, because there's no way to specify the generic type arguments (it will be possible in the next version of XAML, but it won't be supported in VS2010 WPF designer... at least not in the initial release).

However, you can declare a non-generic class that inherits from Dictionary<TKey, TValue>, and use it in XAML.

C#

public class MyDictionary : Dictionary<string, int> { }

XAML

<Window>
  <Window.Tag>
    <local:MyDictionary>
        <sys:Int32 x:Key="key0">0</sys:Int32>
        <sys:Int32 x:Key="key1">111</sys:Int32>
        <sys:Int32 x:Key="key2">222</sys:Int32>
    </local:MyDictionary />    
  </Window.Tag>
</Window>

edited Feb 23 '10 at 16:16

Steven Sudit

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answered Feb 23 '10 at 16:14

Thomas Levesque

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What is meant by *it will be possible in the next version of XAML* do you have any clue when they plan to implement it? – Shimmy Weitzhandler Apr 13 '10 at 13:08
@Shimmy : actually, it is already implemented in XAML 2009. Unfortunately VS2010 doesn't support XAML 2009 yet :( – Thomas Levesque Apr 13 '10 at 13:45
2

For details, see this video : http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/TL36/ (XAML 2009 new features are presented starting at 7'20) – Thomas Levesque Apr 13 '10 at 13:48
1

what do you mean 7'20, is this when I will be 70yo :{ – Shimmy Weitzhandler Apr 13 '10 at 22:56
1

I mean at the position "7 minutes and 20 seconds" in the video – Thomas Levesque Apr 14 '10 at 08:05

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 24 '13 at 14:49

8

If the keys and values are strings, you can use ListDictionary or HybridDictionary.

For example:

<Specialized:ListDictionary x:Key="MasterSlidesFileNames">
    <System:String x:Key="long">Ya long yes ni</System:String>
    <System:String x:Key="Sun">Waterfall</System:String>
    <System:String x:Key="lorem ipsum">hello wOrld</System:String>
</Specialized:ListDictionary>

answered Jun 24 '13 at 14:49

Alexzander

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Namespace declaration: `xmlns:Specialized="clr-namespace:System.Collections.Specialized;assembly=System"` – Pollitzer Feb 28 '16 at 09:41
1

and `xmlns:System="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"` – marbel82 Jun 01 '21 at 13:17
This is maybe not such a good idea. In https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.collections.specialized.listdictionary?redirectedfrom=MSDN&view=net-6.0 it says: "Recommended for collections that typically include fewer than 10 items." – Kim Homann Sep 02 '22 at 09:42

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 30 '16 at 21:30

5

Try something like this:

use this namespace: xmlns:collections="clr-namespace:System.Collections;assembly=mscorlib"

<ComboBox.ItemsSource>
    <collections:ArrayList>
        <collections:DictionaryEntry Key="0" Value="Standby"/>
        <collections:DictionaryEntry Key="1" Value="Maintenance"/>
        <collections:DictionaryEntry Key="2" Value="Available"/>
        <collections:DictionaryEntry Key="3" Value="Deselected"/>
        <collections:DictionaryEntry Key="4" Value="Input Error"/>
    </collections:ArrayList>
</ComboBox.ItemsSource>

edited Jun 30 '16 at 21:30

Laurel

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answered Jun 30 '16 at 21:22

Bryan Potratz

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New answer to an old post, but exactly what I needed. – Pat Oct 11 '16 at 19:05

score 5 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

5

In a related question i gave an answer which shows how one could create a generic dictionary in XAML without the XAML 2009 features using a custom Markup Extension instead.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community

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answered Feb 26 '12 at 02:44

H.B.

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I checked it. Yes it's great! – Shimmy Weitzhandler Feb 26 '12 at 03:42

Create a Dictionary in xaml?

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