Programming WPF, 2nd Edition

WrapPanel

WrapPanel works just like a StackPanel until it runs out of space. If you provide a horizontal WrapPanel with more children than will fit in the available width, it will arrange its content in a way similar to how a word processor lays out words on a line. It puts the children in a row from left to right until it runs out of space, at which point it starts on the next line.

WrapPanel is very simple to use. Just as with a StackPanel, you add a sequence of children, as Example 3-3 shows.

Example 3-3. WrapPanel

<WrapPanel Background="Beige">
  <Button>One</Button>
  <Button>Two</Button>
  <Button>Three</Button>
  <Button>Four</Button>
  <Button>Five</Button>
  <Button>Six</Button>
  <Button>Seven</Button>
  <Button>Eight</Button>
</WrapPanel>

As Figure 3-4 shows, the items are arranged from left to right. As you can see from the panel's filled-in background, it is not wide enough to accommodate all the items, so the last three have been wrapped onto the next line.

Figure 3-4. WrapPanel

WrapPanel also offers an Orientation property. Setting this to Vertical will arrange the children in a sequence of vertical stacks, a layout style very similar to Windows Explorer's "List" view.

WrapPanel and StackPanel really are useful only for small-scale layout. You will need to use a more powerful panel to define the overall layout of your application, such as DockPanel.