WPF SaveFileDialog DefaultExt ignored?

Question

var dlg = new SaveFileDialog();
dlg.FileName = "graph";
dlg.DefaultExt = ".bmp";
dlg.Filter = "PNG|*.png|DOT|*.dot|Windows Bitmap Format|*.bmp|GIF|*.gif|JPEG|*.jpg|PDF|*.pdf|Scalable Vector Graphics|*.svg|Tag Image File Format|*.tiff";

The extension always defaults to .png. It seems the DefaultExt is ignored if there is a Filter; then it just defaults to the first option in the list.

Is there a way to force it to actually respect the default ext?

Answer 1

You should set FilterIndex property instead of DefaultExt. If you still want to use DefaultExt, you can convert it to proper filter index manually:

public static void UseDefaultExtAsFilterIndex(FileDialog dialog)
{
    var ext = "*." + dialog.DefaultExt;
    var filter = dialog.Filter;
    var filters = filter.Split('|');
    for(int i = 1; i < filters.Length; i += 2)
    {
        if(filters[i] == ext)
        {
            dialog.FilterIndex = 1 + (i - 1) / 2;
            return;
        }
    }
}

var dlg = new SaveFileDialog();
dlg.FileName = "graph";
dlg.DefaultExt = ".bmp";
dlg.Filter = "PNG|*.png|DOT|*.dot|Windows Bitmap Format|*.bmp|GIF|*.gif|JPEG|*.jpg|PDF|*.pdf|Scalable Vector Graphics|*.svg|Tag Image File Format|*.tiff";
UseDefaultExtAsFilterIndex(dlg);
dlg.ShowDialog();