How to center an element in wpf canvas

Question

How can I center an element in wpf canvas using attached properties?

Answer 1

The only way I know to do this is to figure out the size of the canvas, and then set the properties based off that. This can be done using an event handler for SizeChanged on the canvas:

parentCanvas.SizeChanged += new SizeChangedEventHandler(parentCanvas_SizeChanged);

void parentCanvas_SizeChanged(object sender, SizeChangedEventArgs e)
{
    parentCanvas.SetLeft(uiElement, (parentCanvas.ActualWidth - uiElement.ActualWidth) / 2);
    parentCanvas.SetTop(uiElement, (parentCanvas.ActualHeight - uiElement.ActualHeight) / 2);
}

Answer 2

I came across this post, because I was searching for a way to center an element within a Canvas in XAML only, instead of using Attached Properties.

Just in case, you came for the same reason:

<Canvas x:Name="myCanvas">
    <Grid Width="{Binding ActualWidth, ElementName=myCanvas}" 
          Height="{Binding ActualHeight, ElementName=myCanvas}">
        <Label Content="Hello World!"
               HorizontalAlignment="Center"
               VerticalAlignment="Center" 
        />
    </Grid>
</Canvas>

Answer 3

You can put the Canvas and the element you want to be centered inside a Grid :

<Grid>
    <Canvas Width="200" Height="200" Background="Black" />
    <Button Width="50" Height="20" > Hello
    </Button>
</Grid>

Answer 4

Something like this.

double left = (Canvas.ActualWidth - element.ActualWidth) / 2;
Canvas.SetLeft(element, left);

double top  = (Canvas.ActualHeight - element.ActualHeight) / 2;
Canvas.SetTop(element, top);