Question

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:System="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
    <Window.Resources>
        <System:DateTime x:Key="d" >2012/7/8</System:DateTime>
    </Window.Resources>
    <StackPanel>
        <ContentControl Content="{Binding}" DataContext="{StaticResource d}" />
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding}" DataContext="{StaticResource d}"/>
    </StackPanel>
</Window>

This code gives me the following window.

Strangely, the identical binding when applies to ContentControl only shows date part and when applies to TextBlock also shows time part.

I’m just curious to know the reason and ask whether it is possible to exchange the presentation, I mean TextBlock only shows date part and ContentControl shows both part.

Thank you.

Answer 1

For the ContentControl, use ContentStringFormat. For the TextBlock, use a Binding with a StringFormat:

<ContentControl Content="{Binding}" ContentStringFormat="dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss"/>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding ., StringFormat=dd/MM/yyyy}"/>

In short, the difference comes down to the fact that a ContentControl can show any old object as content (not just a string) whereas TextBlock.Text can only be a string.