WPF - Writing an IMultiValueConverter

Currently, I'm working on a project involving WPF. I will post my experiences from time to time. This week, I wrote a simple IMultiValueConverter implementation which can be used to format a set of bindings in a String.Format fashion. This is how it works:

Define the class and assign a key to refer to it:

<Window.Resources>
  <c:StringFormatterConverter
      x:Key="StringFormatterConverter" />
</Window.Resources>

Bind some element (GridViewColumn in this case) to a datasource, in this case something which has properties called LASTNAME and FIRSTNAME on it:

<GridViewColumn.DisplayMemberBinding>
 <MultiBinding>
   <Binding Path="LASTNAME" />
   <Binding Path="FIRSTNAME" />
 </MultiBinding>
</GridViewColumn.DisplayMemberBinding>

Now set a converter on the MultiBinding:

<MultiBinding Converter="{StaticResource StringFormatterConverter}" ConverterParameter="{}{0}, {1}">

Both IValueConverter and IMultiValueConverter implement two methods:

• Convert
• ConvertBack

One for binding one direction and the other for the opposite direction (from->to).

The ConverterParameter in the Converter is used to pass the format we'll be using to display the bound elements.
Let's look at a code sample (sanity checks are removed for readability purposes):

public class StringFormatterConverter : IMultiValueConverter
{
 public object Convert(
  object[] values,
  Type targetType,
  object parameter,
  System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
 {
  return string.Format(
   culture,
   formatArgument,
   values);
 }

 public object[] ConvertBack(
  object value,
  Type[] targetTypes,
  object parameter,
  System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
 {
  throw new NotImplementedException(
   "Unable to convert a formatted argument string back.");
 }
}

It's that simple, WPF will pass the values to the converter and expects a converted value back. We format the values using the other supplied arguments, parameter ('{0}, {1}') and culture.

You can use any string.Format argument you'd like; just remember to escape the first '{' sign, so the Xaml interpreter knows you don't mean to use a Markup Extension.

Escaping the first brace is done by placing an empty mark extension in front of
the character ('{}{').

The namespace prefix 'c' refers to the assembly and namespace implementing the converter (e.g. <xmlns:c="clr-namespace:Martijn.Wpf.Converters" />