FrameworkElement`s DataContext Property does NOT inherit down the element tree

Question

Hello WPF Pros at least I hope some of you read this!

DataContext is a property on FrameworkElement (base class for all WPF Controls) and is implemented as a Dep

Answer 1

DataContext is a property on FrameworkElement (base class for all WPF Controls) and is implemented as a DependencyProperty. That means all the descendant elements in the logical tree share the same DataContext.

The fact that it's a dependency property doesn't imply inheritance... It's true for DataContext, but only because the dependency property has the FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.Inherits flag in its metadata.

So the ContentControl should do it with its descendant elements right?

ContentControl is a bit special: the DataContext of its descendants (the visual tree built from the DataTemplate) is actually be the Content of the ContentControl. So if your ContentControl has no content, the DataContext inside it is null.