WPF: Alternating colors on a ItemsControl?

Question

How do I get alternating colors on a ItemsControl? I have AlternationCount set to 2, but the ItemsControl.AlternationIndex property always returns 0.

Answer 1

If you don't want to use the DataTemplate approach, you can create a custom control that uses a ContentControl as the item container, therefore allowing you to specify a background color.

Class:

public class ItemsControlAlternating : ItemsControl
{
    static ItemsControlAlternating()
    {
        DefaultStyleKeyProperty.OverrideMetadata(typeof(ItemsControlAlternating),
                 new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(typeof(ItemsControlAlternating)));
    }

    protected override DependencyObject GetContainerForItemOverride()
    {
        return new ContentControl();
    }

    protected override bool IsItemItsOwnContainerOverride(object item)
    {
        return item is ContentControl;
    }
}

Resource Dictionary: