Best way to make WPF ListView/GridView sort on column-header clicking?

Question

There are lots of solutions on the internet attempting to fill this seemingly very-basic omission from WPF. I\'m really confused as to what would be the \"best\" wa

Answer 1

MSDN has an easy way to perform sorting on columns with up/down glyphs. The example isn't complete, though - they don't explain how to use the data templates for the glyphs. Below is what I got to work with my ListView. This works on .Net 4.

In your ListView, you have to specify an event handler to fire for a click on the GridViewColumnHeader. My ListView looks like this:

<ListView Name="results" GridViewColumnHeader.Click="results_Click">
    <ListView.View>
        <GridView>
            <GridViewColumn DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Path=ContactName}">
                <GridViewColumn.Header>
                    <GridViewColumnHeader Content="Contact Name" Padding="5,0,0,0" HorizontalContentAlignment="Left" MinWidth="150" Name="ContactName" />
                </GridViewColumn.Header>
            </GridViewColumn>
            <GridViewColumn DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Path=PrimaryPhone}">
                <GridViewColumn.Header>
                    <GridViewColumnHeader Content="Contact Number" Padding="5,0,0,0" HorizontalContentAlignment="Left" MinWidth="150" Name="PrimaryPhone"/>
                </GridViewColumn.Header>
            </GridViewColumn>
        </GridView>
    </ListView.View>
</ListView>

In your code behind, set up the code to handle the sorting:

// Global objects
BindingListCollectionView blcv;
GridViewColumnHeader _lastHeaderClicked = null;
ListSortDirection _lastDirection = ListSortDirection.Ascending;

// Header click event
void results_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    GridViewColumnHeader headerClicked =
    e.OriginalSource as GridViewColumnHeader;
    ListSortDirection direction;

    if (headerClicked != null)
    {
    if (headerClicked.Role != GridViewColumnHeaderRole.Padding)
    {
        if (headerClicked != _lastHeaderClicked)
        {
            direction = ListSortDirection.Ascending;
        }
        else
        {
            if (_lastDirection == ListSortDirection.Ascending)
            {
                direction = ListSortDirection.Descending;
            }
            else
            {
                direction = ListSortDirection.Ascending;
            }
        }

        string header = headerClicked.Column.Header as string;
        Sort(header, direction);

        if (direction == ListSortDirection.Ascending)
        {
            headerClicked.Column.HeaderTemplate =
              Resources["HeaderTemplateArrowUp"] as DataTemplate;
        }
        else
        {
            headerClicked.Column.HeaderTemplate =
              Resources["HeaderTemplateArrowDown"] as DataTemplate;
        }

        // Remove arrow from previously sorted header
        if (_lastHeaderClicked != null && _lastHeaderClicked != headerClicked)
        {
            _lastHeaderClicked.Column.HeaderTemplate = null;
        }

        _lastHeaderClicked = headerClicked;
        _lastDirection = direction;
    }
}

// Sort code
private void Sort(string sortBy, ListSortDirection direction)
{
    blcv.SortDescriptions.Clear();
    SortDescription sd = new SortDescription(sortBy, direction);
    blcv.SortDescriptions.Add(sd);
    blcv.Refresh();
}

And then in your XAML, you need to add two DataTemplates that you specified in the sorting method:

<DataTemplate x:Key="HeaderTemplateArrowUp">
    <DockPanel LastChildFill="True" Width="{Binding ActualWidth, RelativeSource={RelativeSource FindAncestor, AncestorType={x:Type GridViewColumnHeader}}}">
        <Path x:Name="arrowUp" StrokeThickness="1" Fill="Gray" Data="M 5,10 L 15,10 L 10,5 L 5,10" DockPanel.Dock="Right" Width="20" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="5,0,5,0" SnapsToDevicePixels="True"/>
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding }" />
    </DockPanel>
</DataTemplate>

<DataTemplate x:Key="HeaderTemplateArrowDown">
    <DockPanel LastChildFill="True" Width="{Binding ActualWidth, RelativeSource={RelativeSource FindAncestor, AncestorType={x:Type GridViewColumnHeader}}}">
        <Path x:Name="arrowDown" StrokeThickness="1" Fill="Gray"  Data="M 5,5 L 10,10 L 15,5 L 5,5" DockPanel.Dock="Right" Width="20" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="5,0,5,0" SnapsToDevicePixels="True"/>
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding }" />
    </DockPanel>
</DataTemplate>

Using the DockPanel with LastChildFill set to true will keep the glyph on the right of the header and let the label fill the rest of the space. I bound the DockPanel width to the ActualWidth of the GridViewColumnHeader because my columns have no width, which lets them autofit to the content. I did set MinWidths on the columns, though, so that the glyph doesn't cover up the column title. The TextBlock Text is set to an empty binding which displays the column name specified in the header.

Answer 2

It all depends really, if you're using the DataGrid from the WPF Toolkit then there is a built in sort, even a multi-column sort which is very useful. Check more out here:

Vincent Sibals Blog

Alternatively, if you're using a different control that doesn't support sorting, i'd recommend the following methods:

Li Gao's Custom Sorting

Followed by:

Li Gao's Faster Sorting

Answer 3

If you have a listview and turn it into a gridview you can easily make your gridview columns headers clickable by doing this.

        <Style TargetType="GridViewColumnHeader">
            <Setter Property="Command" Value="{Binding CommandOrderBy}"/>
            <Setter Property="CommandParameter" Value="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self},Path=Content}"/>
        </Style>

Then just set a delegate command in your code.

    public DelegateCommand CommandOrderBy { get { return new DelegateCommand(Delegated_CommandOrderBy); } }

    private void Delegated_CommandOrderBy(object obj)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }

Im going to assume you all know how to make the ICommand DelegateCommand here. this allowed me to keep all my View clicking in the ViewModel.

I only added this so that there is multiple ways to accomplish the same thing. I did not write code for adding arrow buttons in the header, but that would be done in XAML style, you would need to redesign the entire header which JanDotNet has in their code.

Answer 4

Solution that summarizes all working parts of existing answers and comments including column header templates:

View:

<ListView x:Class="MyNamspace.MyListView"
             xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
             xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" 
             xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
             mc:Ignorable="d" 
             d:DesignHeight="300" d:DesignWidth="300"
             ItemsSource="{Binding Items}"
             GridViewColumnHeader.Click="ListViewColumnHeaderClick">
    <ListView.Resources>

        <Style TargetType="Grid" x:Key="HeaderGridStyle">
            <Setter Property="Height" Value="20" />
        </Style>

        <Style TargetType="TextBlock" x:Key="HeaderTextBlockStyle">
            <Setter Property="Margin" Value="5,0,0,0" />
            <Setter Property="VerticalAlignment" Value="Center" />
        </Style>

        <Style TargetType="Path" x:Key="HeaderPathStyle">
            <Setter Property="StrokeThickness" Value="1" />
            <Setter Property="Fill" Value="Gray" />
            <Setter Property="Width" Value="20" />
            <Setter Property="HorizontalAlignment" Value="Center" />
            <Setter Property="Margin" Value="5,0,5,0" />
            <Setter Property="SnapsToDevicePixels" Value="True" />
        </Style>

        <DataTemplate x:Key="HeaderTemplateDefault">
            <Grid Style="{StaticResource HeaderGridStyle}">
                <TextBlock Text="{Binding }" Style="{StaticResource HeaderTextBlockStyle}" />
            </Grid>
        </DataTemplate>

        <DataTemplate x:Key="HeaderTemplateArrowUp">
            <Grid Style="{StaticResource HeaderGridStyle}">
                <Path Data="M 7,3 L 13,3 L 10,0 L 7,3" Style="{StaticResource HeaderPathStyle}" />
                <TextBlock Text="{Binding }" Style="{StaticResource HeaderTextBlockStyle}" />
            </Grid>
        </DataTemplate>

        <DataTemplate x:Key="HeaderTemplateArrowDown">
            <Grid Style="{StaticResource HeaderGridStyle}">
                <Path Data="M 7,0 L 10,3 L 13,0 L 7,0"  Style="{StaticResource HeaderPathStyle}" />
                <TextBlock Text="{Binding }" Style="{StaticResource HeaderTextBlockStyle}" />
            </Grid>
        </DataTemplate>

    </ListView.Resources>

    <ListView.View>
        <GridView ColumnHeaderTemplate="{StaticResource HeaderTemplateDefault}">

            <GridViewColumn Header="Name" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding NameProperty}" />
            <GridViewColumn Header="Type" Width="45" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding TypeProperty}"/>

            <!-- ... -->

        </GridView>
    </ListView.View>
</ListView>

Code Behinde:

public partial class MyListView : ListView
{
    GridViewColumnHeader _lastHeaderClicked = null;

    public MyListView()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    private void ListViewColumnHeaderClick(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        GridViewColumnHeader headerClicked = e.OriginalSource as GridViewColumnHeader;

        if (headerClicked == null)
            return;

        if (headerClicked.Role == GridViewColumnHeaderRole.Padding)
            return;

        var sortingColumn = (headerClicked.Column.DisplayMemberBinding as Binding)?.Path?.Path;
        if (sortingColumn == null)
            return;

        var direction = ApplySort(Items, sortingColumn);

        if (direction == ListSortDirection.Ascending)
        {
            headerClicked.Column.HeaderTemplate =
                Resources["HeaderTemplateArrowUp"] as DataTemplate;
        }
        else
        {
            headerClicked.Column.HeaderTemplate =
                Resources["HeaderTemplateArrowDown"] as DataTemplate;
        }

        // Remove arrow from previously sorted header
        if (_lastHeaderClicked != null && _lastHeaderClicked != headerClicked)
        {
            _lastHeaderClicked.Column.HeaderTemplate =
                Resources["HeaderTemplateDefault"] as DataTemplate;
        }

        _lastHeaderClicked = headerClicked;
    }


    public static ListSortDirection ApplySort(ICollectionView view, string propertyName)
    {
        ListSortDirection direction = ListSortDirection.Ascending;
        if (view.SortDescriptions.Count > 0)
        {
            SortDescription currentSort = view.SortDescriptions[0];
            if (currentSort.PropertyName == propertyName)
            {
                if (currentSort.Direction == ListSortDirection.Ascending)
                    direction = ListSortDirection.Descending;
                else
                    direction = ListSortDirection.Ascending;
            }
            view.SortDescriptions.Clear();
        }
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(propertyName))
        {
            view.SortDescriptions.Add(new SortDescription(propertyName, direction));
        }
        return direction;
    }
}