Align items in a stack panel?

Question

I was wondering if I can have 2 controls in a horizontal-oriented StackPanel so that the right item should be docked to the right side of the StackPanel.

I tried the following but it didn't work:

<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
    <TextBlock>Left</TextBlock>
    <Button Width="30" HorizontalAlignment="Right">Right<Button>
</StackPanel>

In the snippet above I want the Button to be docked to the right side of the StackPanel.

Note: I need it to be done with StackPanel, not Grid etc.

You explicitly mention no grids, but that is exactly how I accomplished this. I'll be interested to see if someone else has a non-grid answer for your question that fits my own needs. — JMD, Jan 07 '10 at 19:58
yeah, i someone just gave me a project full of stack panels in this way, that's how he wants it to be fix it. — Shimmy Weitzhandler, Jan 07 '10 at 20:13
I know this is (extremely) late, but could you not put a dockpanel within the stackpanel? — Kian, Aug 05 '12 at 00:40
@Kian, you are absolutely right with your comment, I thought of it myself, tried, and it worked perfectly. — Gabrielius, Sep 05 '14 at 16:21

Dirk Vollmar · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-22T14:05:29.077

265

You can achieve this with a DockPanel:

<DockPanel Width="300">
    <TextBlock>Left</TextBlock>
    <Button HorizontalAlignment="Right">Right</Button>
</DockPanel>

The difference is that a StackPanel will arrange child elements into single line (either vertical or horizontally) whereas a DockPanel defines an area where you can arrange child elements either horizontally or vertically, relative to each other (the Dock property changes the position of an element relative to other elements within the same container. Alignment properties, such as HorizontalAlignment, change the position of an element relative to its parent element).

Update

As pointed out in the comments you can also use the FlowDirection property of a StackPanel. See @D_Bester's answer.

edited Oct 22 '17 at 14:05

answered Jan 07 '10 at 20:15

Dirk Vollmar

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this is what I meant with the 'etc.' I guess the answer is no, and will have to do it the tough way, read my comment for JMD above – Shimmy Weitzhandler Jan 07 '10 at 20:29
Well, StackPanel simply can't do the layout that you want. A Grid will give you the most flexibility, but a change from StackPanel to DockPanel doesn't seem too difficult. – Dirk Vollmar Jan 07 '10 at 20:37
2

There is no DockPanel in Windows 8, any other solutions ? – Christoph Jul 04 '12 at 13:26
@DirkVollmar Actually StackPanel works quite well, see my answer. – D_Bester Oct 20 '17 at 15:57
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if you want to let item align right most, set `LastChildFill="False"` that is ``, see https://stackoverflow.com/a/9599290/4573839 – yu yang Jian Jul 20 '18 at 02:08

score 77 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 12 '15 at 12:21

77

Yo can set FlowDirection of Stack panel to RightToLeft, and then all items will be aligned to the right side.

edited Aug 12 '15 at 12:21

slavoo

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answered Jun 23 '12 at 17:38

RusBog

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Note however that this changes (reverses) the order of the controls in the StackPanel. – rumblefx0 Jan 28 '14 at 07:36
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@slattery If FlowDirection is a problem just put in another StackPanel and specify the FlowDirection. See my answer. – D_Bester Oct 21 '17 at 16:54
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@rumblefx0: note, the DockPanel also reverses the order of the controls, if they are docked to the right or to the bottom. This is because the first control, is docked first. – Olivier Jacot-Descombes Apr 24 '18 at 15:10

mopsled · Answer 3 · 2017-10-24T08:33:36.330

38

For those who stumble upon this question, here's how to achieve this layout with a Grid:

<Grid>
    <TextBlock Text="Server:"/>
    <TextBlock Text="http://127.0.0.1" HorizontalAlignment="Right"/>
</Grid>

creates

Server:                                                                   http://127.0.0.1

edited Oct 24 '17 at 08:33

answered Sep 13 '13 at 21:40

mopsled

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score 21 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 05 '17 at 08:12

Could not get this working using a DockPanel quite the way I wanted and reversing the flow direction of a StackPanel is troublesome. Using a grid is not an option as items inside of it may be hidden at runtime and thus I do not know the total number of columns at design time. The best and simplest solution I could come up with is:

<Grid>
    <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
        <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" />
    </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
    <StackPanel Grid.Column="1" Orientation="Horizontal">
        <!-- Right aligned controls go here -->
    </StackPanel>
</Grid>

This will result in controls inside of the StackPanel being aligned to the right side of the available space regardless of the number of controls - both at design and runtime. Yay! :)

If FlowDirection is a problem just put in another StackPanel and specify the FlowDirection. See my answer. — D_Bester, Oct 21 '17 at 16:54
I think this is a much cleaner solution than messing with nested flow directions — Web Dev, Oct 22 '17 at 21:26

D_Bester · Answer 5 · 2017-10-21T16:52:08.737

This works perfectly for me. Just put the button first since you're starting on the right. If FlowDirection becomes a problem just add a StackPanel around it and specify FlowDirection="LeftToRight" for that portion. Or simply specify FlowDirection="LeftToRight" for the relevant control.

<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" HorizontalAlignment="Right" FlowDirection="RightToLeft">
    <Button Width="40" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="3">Right</Button>
    <TextBlock Margin="5">Left</TextBlock>
    <StackPanel FlowDirection="LeftToRight">
        <my:DatePicker Height="24" Name="DatePicker1" Width="113" xmlns:my="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wpf/2008/toolkit" />    
    </StackPanel>
    <my:DatePicker FlowDirection="LeftToRight" Height="24" Name="DatePicker1" Width="113" xmlns:my="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wpf/2008/toolkit" />    
</StackPanel>

score 5 · Answer 6 · edited Jun 08 '16 at 07:07

5

<Grid>
    <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
        <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
    </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
    <TextBlock Text="Left"  />
    <Button Width="30" Grid.Column="1" >Right</Button>
</Grid>

edited Jun 08 '16 at 07:07

0xced

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answered Dec 31 '14 at 14:00

Attif

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For my content, I used Width="*" on the first columnDefinition, and Width="Auto" on the second columnDefinition. This way, the first one takes up all the space less what the second column needs. – Onosa Dec 14 '20 at 19:57

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 21 '18 at 17:10

If you are having a problem like the one I had where labels were centered in my vertical stack panel, make sure you use full width controls. Delete the Width property, or put your button in a full-width container that allows internal alignment. WPF is all about using containers to control the layout.

<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
    <TextBlock>Left</TextBlock>
    <DockPanel>
        <Button HorizontalAlignment="Right">Right</Button>
    </DockPanel>
</StackPanel>

Vertical StackPanel with Left Label followed by Right Button

I hope this helps.

score 0 · Answer 8 · edited Dec 17 '16 at 14:00

0

for windows 10 use relativePanel instead of stack panel, and use

relativepanel.alignrightwithpanel="true"

for the contained elements.

edited Dec 17 '16 at 14:00

Panther

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answered Dec 17 '16 at 13:31

Ahmed.Net

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score -9 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 12 '12 at 22:49

-9

Maybe not what you want if you need to avoid hard-coding size values, but sometimes I use a "shim" (Separator) for this:

<Separator Width="42"></Separator>

answered Sep 12 '12 at 22:49

B. Clay Shannon-B. Crow Raven

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Align items in a stack panel?

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