Select multiple items from a DataGrid in an MVVM WPF project

Question

How can I select multiple items from a DataGrid in an MVVM WPF project?

Answer 1

You can simply add a custom dependency property to do this:

public class CustomDataGrid : DataGrid
{
    public CustomDataGrid ()
    {
        this.SelectionChanged += CustomDataGrid_SelectionChanged;
    }

    void CustomDataGrid_SelectionChanged (object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        this.SelectedItemsList = this.SelectedItems;
    }
    #region SelectedItemsList

    public IList SelectedItemsList
    {
        get { return (IList)GetValue (SelectedItemsListProperty); }
        set { SetValue (SelectedItemsListProperty, value); }
    }

    public static readonly DependencyProperty SelectedItemsListProperty =
            DependencyProperty.Register ("SelectedItemsList", typeof (IList), typeof (CustomDataGrid), new PropertyMetadata (null));

    #endregion
}

Now you can use this dataGrid in the XAML:

<Window x:Class="DataGridTesting.MainWindow"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:i="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/2010/interactivity"
    xmlns:local="clr-namespace:DataGridTesting.CustomDatagrid"
    Title="MainWindow"
    Height="350"
    Width="525">
  <DockPanel>
    <local:CustomDataGrid ItemsSource="{Binding Model}"
        SelectionMode="Extended"
        AlternatingRowBackground="Aquamarine"
        SelectionUnit="FullRow"
        IsReadOnly="True"
        SnapsToDevicePixels="True"
        SelectedItemsList="{Binding TestSelected, Mode=TwoWay, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}"/>
  </DockPanel>
</Window>

My ViewModel:

public class MyViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    private static object _lock = new object ();
    private List<MyModel> _myModel;

    public IEnumerable<MyModel> Model { get { return _myModel; } }

    private IList _selectedModels = new ArrayList ();

    public IList TestSelected
    {
        get { return _selectedModels; }
        set
        {
            _selectedModels = value;
            RaisePropertyChanged ("TestSelected");
        }
    }

    public MyViewModel ()
    {
        _myModel = new List<MyModel> ();
        BindingOperations.EnableCollectionSynchronization (_myModel, _lock);

        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        {
            _myModel.Add (new MyModel
            {
                Name = "Test " + i,
                Age = i * 22
            });
        }
        RaisePropertyChanged ("Model");
    }

    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

    public void RaisePropertyChanged (string propertyName)
    {
        var pc = PropertyChanged;
        if (pc != null)
            pc (this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs (propertyName));
    }
}

My model:

public class MyModel
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int Age { get; set; }
}

And finally, here is the code behind of MainWindow:

public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
    public MainWindow ()
    {
        InitializeComponent ();
        this.DataContext = new MyViewModel ();
    }
}

I hope this clean MVVM design helps.