WPF: How to programmatically remove focus from a TextBox

Question

I want to add a simple (at least I thought it was) behaviour to my WPF TextBox.

When the user presses Escape I want the TextBox he is editi

Answer 1

A bit late to the party, but it was helpful to me so here it goes.

Since .Net 3.0, FrameworkElement has a MoveFocus function which did the trick for me.

Answer 2

In Windows Phone Development, I just did Focus() or this.Focus() in the PhoneApplicationPage and it worked like a charm.

Answer 3

Since none of the above answers worked for me and the accepted answer does work only for a keyboard focus, I came to the following approach:

// Kill logical focus
FocusManager.SetFocusedElement(FocusManager.GetFocusScope(textBox), null);
// Kill keyboard focus
Keyboard.ClearFocus();

Kills both, logical as well as the keyboard focus.

Answer 4

For me, it's quite tricky, especially when using with LostFocus binding. However, my workaround is to add an empty label and focus on it.

<Label Name="ResetFocusArea" Focusable="True" FocusVisualStyle="{x:Null}" />

...

OnKeyDown(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
  //if is Esc
  ResetFocusArea.Focus();
}

Answer 5

AFAIK, it is not possible to completely remove the focus. Something in your Window will always have the focus.

Answer 6

You can set the focus to a focusable ancestor. This code will work even if the textbox is inside a template with no focusable ancestors inside that same template:

DependencyObject ancestor = textbox.Parent;
while (ancestor != null)
{
    var element = ancestor as UIElement;
    if (element != null && element.Focusable)
    {
        element.Focus();
        break;
    }

    ancestor = VisualTreeHelper.GetParent(ancestor);
}