How to put a new line into a wpf TextBlock control?

Question

I'm fetching text from an XML file, and I'd like to insert some new lines that are interpreted by the textblock render as new lines.

I've tried:

<data>Foo bar baz \n baz bar</data>

But the data is still displayed without the new line. I set the contents of <data> via the .Text property via C#.

What do I need to put in the XML in order for it to render the new line in the GUI?

I've tried something like this manually setting the text in the XAML:

<TextBlock Margin="0 15 0 0" Width="600">
There &#10;
is a new line.
</TextBlock>

And while the encoded character doesn't appear in the GUI it also doesn't give me a new line.

have you tried wrapping the return character in "quotes" Foo bar baz "\n" baz bar — MethodMan, Dec 15 '11 at 19:19
@DJKRAZE: Quotes do nothing, neither do r and n together. :S — Only Bolivian Here, Dec 15 '11 at 19:22
@BalamBalam: It's not the same, that question is explicity about the Text attribute. — H.B., Dec 15 '11 at 19:43
I see I totally understand why "" won't work now.. I am assuming would be more like a literal / key word then. my mistake.. Great answer H.B — MethodMan, Dec 15 '11 at 19:54
Dan Vogel made a up to date working solution. WPF interprets \r\n into \\r\\n. — zORg Alex, Jan 09 '19 at 06:38

H.B. · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-15T19:31:12.207

215

You can try putting a new line in the data:

<data>Foo bar baz 
 baz bar</data>

If that does not work you might need to parse the string manually.

If you need direct XAML that's easy by the way:

<TextBlock>
    Lorem <LineBreak/>
    Ipsum
</TextBlock>

edited Dec 15 '11 at 19:31

answered Dec 15 '11 at 19:21

H.B.

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400

No, this doesn't do anything as well. I've even copy pasted the contents inside the XAML of the TextBlock with enter presses as new lines and it still displays it at once. – Only Bolivian Here Dec 15 '11 at 19:24
3

@SergioTapia: There is a difference between having the break in some data file and XAML, the XAML parser ignores whitespace, but if you, for example, deserialize some XML using the `XmlSerializer` the breaks will be retained. In Xaml you need ``. – H.B. Dec 15 '11 at 19:29
Put the new line directly in the data...of course! Here I just spent a lot of time trying \n, , and tons of html codes to no avail. I should have tried simplest approach first. – thehelix Nov 15 '17 at 22:56

Ketobomb · Answer 2 · 2020-02-26T12:40:26.887

107

For completeness: You can also do this:

 <TextBlock Text="Line1&#x0a;Line 2"/>

x0A is the escaped hexadecimal Line Feed. The equivalent of \n

edited Feb 26 '20 at 12:40

answered Mar 24 '17 at 13:49

Ketobomb

2,108
1
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27

5

Useful in binding in a scenario such as this:- – rajibdotnet Apr 18 '18 at 16:29
5

this is the finest answer – Aurélio Antonio Aug 22 '18 at 17:31
I would add this link: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9021649/what-x0a-x0d-code-does-in-c-sharp-while-writing-csv/9021756#9021756like an explanation to the answer. – I.Step Feb 25 '20 at 22:33
Great solution! I used this for my textblock Style – luka Jun 22 '22 at 06:37

score 25 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 15 '11 at 20:29

you must use

 < SomeObject xml:space="preserve" > once upon a time ...
      this line will be below the first one < /SomeObject>

Or if you prefer :

 <SomeObject xml:space="preserve" />  once upon a time... &#10; this line below < / SomeObject>

watch out : if you both use &10 AND you go to the next line in your text, you'll have TWO empty lines.

here for details : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms788746.aspx

score 24 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 31 '12 at 16:53

24

You can also use binding

<TextBlock Text="{Binding MyText}"/>

And set MyText like this:

Public string MyText
{
    get{return string.Format("My Text \n Your Text");}
}

answered Aug 31 '12 at 16:53

Gordon

999
7
3

12

You don't even need the string.Format(). return "My Text \n Your Text"; works just fine. – Zodman Jul 04 '14 at 06:13

score 13 · Answer 5 · edited Jul 28 '13 at 00:33

Even though this is an old question, I've just come across the problem and solved it differently from the given answers. Maybe it could be helpful to others.

I noticed that even though my XML files looked like:

<tag>
 <subTag>content with newline.\r\nto display</subTag>
</tag>

When it was read into my C# code the string had double backslashes.

\\r\\n

To fix this I wrote a ValueConverter to strip the extra backslash.

public class XmlStringConverter : IValueConverter
{
    public object Convert(
        object value,
        Type targetType,
        object parameter,
        CultureInfo culture)
    {
        string valueAsString = value as string;
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(valueAsString))
        {
            return value;
        }

        valueAsString = valueAsString.Replace("\\r\\n", "\r\n");
        return valueAsString;
    }

    public object ConvertBack(
        object value,
        Type targetType,
        object parameter,
        CultureInfo culture)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
}

Along with having to add `TextWrapping="Wrap"` (and `AcceptsReturn="True"` if this were a TextBox) in the XAML on the TextBlock, you had it right, and this should be the answer - but just say to do the `.Replace()` on the value coming from the database - no need for a fancy function: `valueAsString = valueAsString.Replace("\\r\\n", "\r\n");` Any value entered using the Return key will get written to the DB just fine - it's when C# gets a hold of it to display the value that problems are caused, as you noted. So this would need to be called onload of the text. — vapcguy, Mar 03 '17 at 21:38

score 10 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 12 '13 at 20:37

10

If all else fails you can also use

"My text needs a line break here" + System.Environment.NewLine + " This should be a new line"

answered Jun 12 '13 at 20:37

Adrian

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5
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score 9 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 08 '15 at 14:14

<TextBlock Margin="4" TextWrapping="Wrap" FontFamily="Verdana" FontSize="12">
        <Run TextDecorations="StrikeThrough"> Run cannot contain inline</Run>
        <Span FontSize="16"> Span can contain Run or Span or whatever 
            <LineBreak />
        <Bold FontSize="22" FontFamily="Times New Roman" >Bold can contains 
            <Italic>Italic</Italic></Bold></Span>
</TextBlock>

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 11 '18 at 23:54

2

Using System.Environment.NewLine is the only solution that worked for me. When I tried \r\n, it just repeated the actual \r\n in the text box.

answered Oct 11 '18 at 23:54

Order23

71
3

+1 This solution works for me when I use ```String.Join()``` to my list of string. Example: ```String.Join(System.Environment.NewLine, manyStrings);``` – Veerakran Sereerungruangkul Jan 15 '21 at 13:24

Josh · Answer 9 · 2019-07-08T20:39:48.963

Insert a "line break" or a "paragraph break" in a RichTextBox "rtb" like this:

var range = new TextRange(rtb.SelectionStart, rtb.Selection.End); 
range.Start.Paragraph.ContentStart.InsertLineBreak();
range.Start.Paragraph.ContentStart.InsertParagraphBreak();

The only way to get the NewLine items is by inserting text with "\r\n" items first, and then applying more code which works on Selection and/or TextRange objects. This makes sure that the \par items are converted to \line items, are saved as desired, and are still correct when reopening the *.Rtf file. That is what I found so far after hard tries. My three code lines need to be surrounded by more code (with loops) to set the TextPointer items (.Start .End .ContentStart .ContentEnd) where the Lines and Breaks should go, which I have done with success for my purposes.

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Mar 20 '21 at 17:58

        StringBuilder somestext = new StringBuilder();
        somestext.AppendLine("this is some text on line 1");
        somestext.AppendLine(TB_Tag_Linebreak);
        somestext.AppendLine("this is some more text on line 2"); 
        return somestext.ToString();

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Jun 08 '22 at 08:51

Define a property which replaces \n with System.Environment.Newline on set:

private string _data;
public string Data
{
    get => _data; 
    set {
        _data = value.Replace("\\n", System.Environment.NewLine);
        OnPropertyChanged();
    }
}

Bind your textbox to the property:

<TextBox Text="{Binding Data}" />

Read the xml data and assign it to the property

Data = ...data fetched from xml...

Any \n in the xml data is displayed as a new line in the TextBox.

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Jun 22 '22 at 06:43

just from the @Ketobomb suggestion, could you use this in your style:

 <Style x:Key="TextBlockTestStyle" TargetType="TextBlock">       
    <Setter Property="Text" Value="line1!&#x0a;Line2&#x0a;Line3"/>
 </Setter>

and use it in this way:

 <TextBlock x:Name="TextBlockTest" Style="{StaticResource TextBlockTestStyle}"/>

score -2 · Answer 13 · answered May 30 '19 at 19:42

-2

You have to ensure that the textblock has this option enabled:

AcceptsReturn="True"

answered May 30 '19 at 19:42

Dave

35
4

AcceptsReturn is only for TextBox, not TextBlock – Steve Jul 18 '19 at 14:05

How to put a new line into a wpf TextBlock control?

13 Answers13