WPF Grid with column row margin padding

Question

Is it easily possible to specify a margin and or padding for rows or columns in a WPF Grid   I could of course add extra columns to space things out  but this seems like a job for padding margins  it will give much simplier XAML   Has someone derived from the standard Grid to add this functionality

User · Answer

I had similar problem recently in two column grid  I needed a margin on elements in right column only  All elements in both columns were of type TextBlock    lt Grid Resources gt       lt Style TargetType   x Type TextBlock   BasedOn   StaticResource OurLabelStyle   gt           lt Style Triggers gt               lt Trigger Property  Grid Column  Value  1  gt                   lt Setter Property  Margin  Value  20 0    gt               lt  Trigger gt           lt  Style Triggers gt       lt  Style gt   lt  Grid Resources gt

User · Answer

I did it right now with one of my grids     First apply the same margin to every element inside the grid  You can do this mannualy  using styles  or whatever you like  Lets say you want an horizontal spacing of 6px and a vertical spacing of 2px  Then you add margins of  3px 1px  to every child of the grid  Then remove the margins created around the grid  if you want to align the borders of the controls inside the grid to the same position of the grid   Do this setting a margin of  -3px -1px  to the grid  That way  other controls outside the grid will be aligned with the outtermost controls inside the grid

User · Answer

You could write your own GridWithMargin class  inherited from Grid  and override the ArrangeOverride method to apply the margins

User · Answer

I am surprised I did not see this solution posted yet   Coming from the web  frameworks like bootstrap will use a negative margin to pull back rows   columns   It might be a little verbose  albeit not that bad   it does work and the elements are evenly spaced and sized   In the example below I use a StackPanel root to demonstrate how the 3 buttons are evenly spaced using margins  You could use other elements  just change the inner x Type from button to your element   The idea is simple  use a grid on the outside to pull the margins of elements out of their bounds by half the amount of the inner grid  using negative margins   use the inner grid to evenly space the elements with the amount you want   Update  Some comment from a user said it doesn t work  here s a quick video demonstrating  https   youtu be rPx2OdtSOYI         lt StackPanel gt           lt Grid gt               lt Grid Resources gt                   lt Style TargetType   x Type Grid   gt                       lt Setter Property  Margin  Value  -5 0   gt                   lt  Style gt               lt  Grid Resources gt                lt Grid gt                   lt Grid Resources gt                       lt Style TargetType   x Type Button   gt                           lt Setter Property  Margin  Value  10 0   gt                       lt  Style gt                   lt  Grid Resources gt                    lt Grid ColumnDefinitions gt                       lt ColumnDefinition Width       gt                       lt ColumnDefinition Width       gt                       lt ColumnDefinition Width       gt                   lt  Grid ColumnDefinitions gt                    lt Button Grid Column  0  Content  Btn 1    gt                   lt Button Grid Column  1  Content  Btn 2    gt                   lt Button Grid Column  2  Content  Btn 3    gt               lt  Grid gt            lt  Grid gt            lt TextBlock FontWeight  Bold  Margin  0 10  gt              Test          lt  TextBlock gt       lt  StackPanel gt

User · Answer

Though you can t add margin or padding to a Grid  you could use something like a Frame  or similar container   that you can apply it to   That way  if you show or hide the control on a button click say   you won t need to add margin on every control that may interact with it   Think of it as isolating the groups of controls into units  then applying style to those units

User · Answer

Sometimes the simple method is the best  Just pad your strings with spaces  If it is only a few textboxes etc this is by far the simplest method   You can also simply insert blank columns rows with a fixed size  Extremely simple and you can easily change it

User · Answer

You could use something like this    lt Style TargetType   x Type DataGridCell   gt     lt Setter Property  Padding  Value  4    gt     lt Setter Property  Template  gt       lt Setter Value gt         lt ControlTemplate TargetType   x Type DataGridCell   gt           lt Border Padding   TemplateBinding Padding   BorderBrush   TemplateBinding BorderBrush   BorderThickness   TemplateBinding BorderThickness   Background   TemplateBinding Background   SnapsToDevicePixels  True  gt             lt ContentPresenter SnapsToDevicePixels   TemplateBinding SnapsToDevicePixels    gt           lt  Border gt         lt  ControlTemplate gt       lt  Setter Value gt     lt  Setter gt      Or if you don t need the TemplateBindings    lt Style TargetType   x Type DataGridCell   gt      lt Setter Property  Template  gt         lt Setter Value gt             lt ControlTemplate TargetType   x Type DataGridCell   gt                 lt Border Padding  4  gt                     lt ContentPresenter   gt                 lt  Border gt             lt  ControlTemplate gt         lt  Setter Value gt     lt  Setter gt   lt  Style gt

User · Answer

One possibility would be to add fixed width rows and columns to act as the padding   margin you are looking for    You might also consider that you are constrained by the size of your container  and that a grid will become as large as the containing element or its specified width and height  You could simply use columns and rows with no width or height set  That way they default to evenly breaking up the total space within the grid  Then it would just be a mater of centering your elements vertically and horizontally within you grid   Another method might be to wrap all grid elements in a fixed with single row  amp  column grid that has a fixed size and margin  That your grid contains fixed width   height boxes which contain your actual elements

User · Answer

Edited   To give margin to any control you could wrap the control with border like this   lt  --   -- gt       lt Border Padding  10  gt               lt AnyControl gt   lt  --   -- gt

User · Answer

Use a Border control outside the cell control and define the padding for that        lt Grid gt           lt Grid Resources  gt               lt Style TargetType  Border   gt                   lt Setter Property  Padding  Value  5 5 5 5    gt               lt  Style gt           lt  Grid Resources gt            lt Grid RowDefinitions gt               lt RowDefinition  gt               lt RowDefinition  gt           lt  Grid RowDefinitions gt            lt Border Grid Row  0  Grid Column  0  gt               lt YourGridControls  gt           lt  Border gt           lt Border Grid Row  1  Grid Column  0  gt               lt YourGridControls  gt           lt  Border gt        lt  Grid gt     Source    Original Source and from Way Back Machine

User · Answer

RowDefinition and ColumnDefinition are of type ContentElement  and Margin is strictly a FrameworkElement property  So to your question   is it easily possible  the answer is a most definite no  And no  I have not seen any layout panels that demonstrate this kind of functionality   You can add extra rows or columns as you suggested  But you can also set margins on a Grid element itself  or anything that would go inside a Grid  so that s your best workaround for now

User · Answer

Thought I d add my own solution because nobody yet mentioned this  Instead of designing a UserControl based on Grid  you can target controls contained in grid with a style declaration  Takes care of adding padding margin to all elements without having to define for each  which is cumbersome and labor-intensive For instance  if your Grid contains nothing but TextBlocks  you can do this    lt Style TargetType   x Type TextBlock   gt       lt Setter Property  Margin  Value  10   gt   lt  Style gt    Which is like the equivalent of  cell padding

User · Answer

in uwp  Windows10FallCreatorsUpdate version and above    lt Grid RowSpacing  3  ColumnSpacing  3  gt

User · Answer

I ran into this problem while developing some software recently and it occured to me to ask WHY  Why have they done this   the answer was right there in front of me   A row of data is an object  so if we maintain object orientation  then the design for a particular row should be seperated  suppose you need to re-use the row display later on in the future    So I started using databound stack panels and custom controls for most data displays   Lists have made the occasional appearance but mostly the grid has been used only for primary page organization  Header  Menu Area  Content Area  Other Areas    Your custom objects can easily manage any spacing requirements for each row within the stack panel or grid  a single grid cell can contain the entire row object   This also has the added benefit of reacting properly to changes in orientation  expand collapses  etc    lt Grid gt     lt Grid RowDefinitions gt       lt RowDefinition   gt       lt RowDefinition   gt     lt  Grid RowDefinitions gt      lt custom MyRowObject Style  YourStyleHereOrGeneralSetter  Grid Row  0    gt     lt custom MyRowObject Style  YourStyleHere  Grid Row  1    gt   lt  Grid gt    or   lt StackPanel gt     lt custom MyRowObject Style  YourStyleHere  Grid Row  0    gt     lt custom MyRowObject Style  YourStyleHere  Grid Row  1    gt   lt  StackPanel gt    Your Custom controls will also inherit the DataContext if your using data binding   my personal favorite benefit of this approach

User · Answer

As was stated before create a GridWithMargins class  Here is my working code example  public class GridWithMargins   Grid       public Thickness RowMargin   get  set      new Thickness 10  10  10  10       protected override Size ArrangeOverride Size arrangeSize                var basesize   base ArrangeOverride arrangeSize            foreach  UIElement child in InternalChildren                        var pos   GetPosition child               pos X    RowMargin Left              pos Y    RowMargin Top               var actual   child RenderSize              actual Width -   RowMargin Left   RowMargin Right               actual Height -   RowMargin Top   RowMargin Bottom               var rec   new Rect pos  actual               child Arrange rec                     return arrangeSize             private Point GetPosition Visual element                var posTransForm   element TransformToAncestor this           var areaTransForm   posTransForm Transform new Point 0  0            return areaTransForm            Usage    lt Window x Class  WpfApplication1 MainWindow      xmlns  http   schemas microsoft com winfx 2006 xaml presentation      xmlns x  http   schemas microsoft com winfx 2006 xaml      xmlns d  http   schemas microsoft com expression blend 2008      xmlns mc  http   schemas openxmlformats org markup-compatibility 2006      xmlns local  clr-namespace WpfApplication1      mc Ignorable  d      Title  MainWindow  Height  350  Width  525  gt       lt Grid gt           lt local GridWithMargins ShowGridLines  True  gt               lt Grid RowDefinitions gt                   lt RowDefinition   gt                   lt RowDefinition   gt                   lt RowDefinition   gt                   lt RowDefinition   gt                   lt RowDefinition   gt               lt  Grid RowDefinitions gt               lt Grid ColumnDefinitions gt                   lt ColumnDefinition   gt                   lt ColumnDefinition   gt                   lt ColumnDefinition   gt               lt  Grid ColumnDefinitions gt               lt Rectangle Fill  Red  Grid Row  0  Grid Column  0  HorizontalAlignment  Stretch  VerticalAlignment  Stretch    gt               lt Rectangle Fill  Green  Grid Row  1  Grid Column  0  HorizontalAlignment  Stretch  VerticalAlignment  Stretch    gt               lt Rectangle Fill  Blue  Grid Row  1  Grid Column  1  HorizontalAlignment  Stretch  VerticalAlignment  Stretch    gt           lt  local GridWithMargins gt       lt  Grid gt   lt  Window gt

[wpf] WPF: Grid with column/row margin/padding?

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