How to programmatically select an item in a WPF TreeView?

Question

How is it possible to programmatically select an item in a WPF TreeView? The ItemsControl model seems to prevent it.

Answer 1

I wrote a Helper class for this, which supports MVVM and lazy loaded items.

public class TreeViewHelper
{
    public TreeViewHelper(TreeView treeView, Func getParent, Func> getSubItems)
    {
        TreeView = treeView;
        GetParent = getParent;
        GetSubItems = getSubItems;
    }

    public TreeView TreeView { get; }
    public Func GetParent { get; }
    public Func> GetSubItems { get; }

    public void SelectItemWhileLoaded(TModel node, IList rootNodes)
    {
        if (TreeView.IsLoaded)
        {
            SelectItem(node, rootNodes);
        }
        else
        {
            TreeView.Loaded += TreeView_Loaded;
            void TreeView_Loaded(object sender, System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs e)
            {
                TreeView.Loaded -= TreeView_Loaded;
                SelectItem(node, rootNodes);
            }
        }
    }


    public void SelectItem(TModel node, IList rootNodes)
    {
        Stack nodes = new Stack();
        //push into stack
        while (!rootNodes.Contains(node))
        {
            nodes.Push(node);
            node = GetParent(node);
        }
        TreeViewItem treeViewItem = TreeView.ItemContainerGenerator
            .ContainerFromItem(node) as TreeViewItem;
        if (nodes.Count == 0)
        {
            //Top level
            treeViewItem.IsSelected = true;
            treeViewItem.BringIntoView();
            return;
        }
        Expanded(true);
        void Expanded(bool top)
        {
            if (!top)
            {
                treeViewItem = treeViewItem.ItemContainerGenerator
                    .ContainerFromItem(node) as TreeViewItem;
                if (nodes.Count == 0)
                {
                    treeViewItem.IsSelected = true;
                    treeViewItem.BringIntoView();
                    return;
                }
            }
            node = nodes.Pop();
            treeViewItem.IsExpanded = true;
            if (treeViewItem.ItemContainerGenerator.Status == GeneratorStatus.ContainersGenerated)
            {
                Expanded(true);
            }
            else
            {
                //Lazy
                treeViewItem.ItemContainerGenerator.StatusChanged += ItemContainerGenerator_StatusChanged;
            }
        }
        void ItemContainerGenerator_StatusChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (treeViewItem.ItemContainerGenerator.Status == GeneratorStatus.ContainersGenerated)
            {
                treeViewItem.ItemContainerGenerator.StatusChanged -= ItemContainerGenerator_StatusChanged;
                Expanded(false);
            }
        }
    }
}