How to programmatically select an item in a WPF TreeView?

Thomas Bratt picture Thomas Bratt · Jan 5, 2009 · Viewed 73k times · Source

How is it possible to programmatically select an item in a WPF TreeView? The ItemsControl model seems to prevent it.

Answer

kuninl picture kuninl · Nov 2, 2010

For those who are still looking for the right solution to this problem here is the one below. I found this one in the comments to the Code Project article “WPF TreeView Selection” http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/TreeView_SelectionWPF.aspx by DaWanderer. It was posted by Kenrae on Nov 25 2008. This worked great for me. Thanks Kenrae!

Here is his post:

Instead of walking the tree, have your own data object have the IsSelected property (and I recommend the IsExpanded property too). Define a style for the TreeViewItems of the tree using the ItemContainerStyle property on the TreeView that binds those properties from the TreeViewItem to your data objects. Something like this:

<Style x:Key="LibraryTreeViewItemStyle"
               TargetType="{x:Type TreeViewItem}">
            <Setter Property="IsExpanded"
                        Value="{Binding IsExpanded, Mode=TwoWay}" />
            <Setter Property="IsSelected"
                        Value="{Binding IsSelected, Mode=TwoWay}" />
            <Setter Property="FontWeight"
                        Value="Normal" />
            <Style.Triggers>
                  <Trigger Property="IsSelected"
                              Value="True">
                        <Setter Property="FontWeight"
                                    Value="Bold" />
                  </Trigger>
            </Style.Triggers>
      </Style>

<TreeView ItemsSource="{Binding Path=YourCollection}"
               ItemContainerStyle="{StaticResource LibraryTreeViewItemStyle}"
               ItemTemplate={StaticResource YourHierarchicalDataTemplate}/>