How do I space out the child elements of a StackPanel?

Question

Given a StackPanel:

  Apple
  Banana
  

        

Answer 1

Use Margin or Padding, applied to the scope within the container:

<StackPanel>
    <StackPanel.Resources>
        <Style TargetType="{x:Type TextBox}">
            <Setter Property="Margin" Value="0,10,0,0"/>
        </Style>
    </StackPanel.Resources> 
    <TextBox Text="Apple"/>
    <TextBox Text="Banana"/>
    <TextBox Text="Cherry"/>
</StackPanel>

EDIT: In case you would want to re-use the margin between two containers, you can convert the margin value to a resource in an outer scope, f.e.

<Window.Resources>
    <Thickness x:Key="tbMargin">0,10,0,0</Thickness>
</Window.Resources>

and then refer to this value in the inner scope

<StackPanel.Resources>
    <Style TargetType="{x:Type TextBox}">
        <Setter Property="Margin" Value="{StaticResource tbMargin}"/>
    </Style>
</StackPanel.Resources>

Answer 2

sometimes you need to set Padding, not Margin to make space between items smaller than default

Answer 3

The UniformGrid might not be available in Silverlight, but someone has ported it from WPF. http://www.jeff.wilcox.name/2009/01/uniform-grid/

Answer 4

Usually, I use Grid instead of StackPanel like this:

horizontal case

<Grid>
 <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
    <ColumnDefinition Width="auto"/>
    <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
    <ColumnDefinition  Width="auto"/>
    <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
    <ColumnDefinition  Width="auto"/>
 </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
 <TextBox Height="30" Grid.Column="0">Apple</TextBox>
 <TextBox Height="80" Grid.Column="2">Banana</TextBox>
 <TextBox Height="120" Grid.Column="4">Cherry</TextBox>
</Grid>

vertical case

<Grid>
     <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <RowDefinition Width="auto"/>
        <RowDefinition Width="*"/>
        <RowDefinition  Width="auto"/>
        <RowDefinition Width="*"/>
        <RowDefinition  Width="auto"/>
     </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
     <TextBox Height="30" Grid.Row="0">Apple</TextBox>
     <TextBox Height="80" Grid.Row="2">Banana</TextBox>
     <TextBox Height="120" Grid.Row="4">Cherry</TextBox>
</Grid>

Answer 5

My approach inherits StackPanel.

Usage:

<Controls:ItemSpacer Grid.Row="2" Orientation="Horizontal" Height="30" CellPadding="15,0">
    <Label>Test 1</Label>
    <Label>Test 2</Label>
    <Label>Test 3</Label>
</Controls:ItemSpacer>

All that's needed is the following short class:

using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System;

namespace Controls
{
    public class ItemSpacer : StackPanel
    {
        public static DependencyProperty CellPaddingProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("CellPadding", typeof(Thickness), typeof(ItemSpacer), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(default(Thickness), FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.BindsTwoWayByDefault, OnCellPaddingChanged));
        public Thickness CellPadding
        {
            get
            {
                return (Thickness)GetValue(CellPaddingProperty);
            }
            set
            {
                SetValue(CellPaddingProperty, value);
            }
        }
        private static void OnCellPaddingChanged(DependencyObject Object, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            ((ItemSpacer)Object).SetPadding();
        }

        private void SetPadding()
        {
            foreach (UIElement Element in Children)
            {
                (Element as FrameworkElement).Margin = this.CellPadding;
            }
        }

        public ItemSpacer()
        {
            this.LayoutUpdated += PART_Host_LayoutUpdated;
        }

        private void PART_Host_LayoutUpdated(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
        {
            this.SetPadding();
        }
    }
}