Home/ Questions/Q 454337
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-12T22:15:39+00:00

I use a datatemplate to visualize some items in a ComboBox, the ItemsSource is

  • 0

I use a datatemplate to visualize some items in a ComboBox,
the ItemsSource is bound to an ObservableCollection.
To keep it simple, let’s say I put persons into the ObservableCollection:

public class Person {
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
}

My DataTemplate looks like this:

<DataTemplate TargetType="{x:Type Person}">
  <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
    <TextSearch.Text>
      <MultiBinding StringFormat="{} {0} {1}">
        <Binding Path="FirstName"/>
        <Binding Path="LastName"/>
      </MultiBinding>
    </TextSearch.Text>
    <TextBlock Text="{Binding FirstName}" Margin="2,0" />
    <TextBlock Text="{Binding LastName}"/>
  </StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>

Now I want to enable autocompletion for full names in the ComboBox without introducing a third property on my person class. Hence I do not want to use TextSearch.TextPath Property on the ComboBox, but instead I would like to bind the TextSearch.Text-Property of each ComboBoxItem in the DataTemplate.
Unfortunately, when I do this (which works with a MultiBinding and StringFormat, tested with Snoop), the bound value is registered for my StackPanel only, but using Snoop (great tool) I found that this stackpanel serves just as content for some further ComboBoxItemTemplate, which puts another border etc. and finally a ComboBoxItem-tag around my outer StackPanel. Therefore, the TextSearch.Text-setting is not effective, because it must be set in the created ComboBoxItem, and not somewhere within.

Question now: How can I propagate this TextSearch.Text-Property from my DataTemplate to the surrounding ComboBoxItem using XAML-Styles and -Control-Templates only?
The solution may modify the default-ControlTemplates of ComboBox and ComboBoxItem and my custom (Item-)DataTemplate, but not use any Code-Behind, or at least not too much. Maybe an attached behaviour would be ok, too. But I’m almost sure there must be a way to make it work without, TemplateBinding or RelativeSource-stuff…
And of course the solution must make my keyboard-selection and textcompletion work, s.th. when the list contains Hans Josef and Hans Peter, then entering ‘Hans ‘ should autosuggest Hans Josef, whereas entering ‘Hans P’ quickly enough should autosuggest Hans Peter.

Any solutions?

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    That stuff surrounding your panel is the default container. You need to apply the TextSearch.Text property to the container. You should be able to do this by setting the property via the ItemContainerStyle like so:

    <ComboBox.ItemContainerStyle>
    <Style TargetType="{x:Type ComboBoxItem}">
        <Setter Property="TextSearch.Text">
            <Setter.Value>
                <MultiBinding StringFormat="{} {0} {1}">
                    <Binding Path="FirstName"/>
                    <Binding Path="LastName"/>
                </MultiBinding>
            </Setter.Value>
        </Setter>
    </Style>
</ComboBox.ItemContainerStyle>
    • 0