Wpf nesting containers

Question

On a window control, my main container is a grid.
My grid has 2 rows, one row definition is 50*, and the other is 250*.
Now i want to add a right sidebar, lets say with a StackPanel.
I would like to have a ListBox inside the StackPanel that aligns with the 50* grid row, so as the window height gets bigger, the ListBox size will also get bigger.
My question is whether i can achieve this behavior while the ListBox is inside the StackPanel (which is nested inside the grid) or must the ListBox be placed directly inside the grid?

Answer 1

StackPanel does not stretch vertically.

If you must need a wrapping parent container, use a Grid, which will expand in all directions (if you leave the Horizontal- and VerticalAlignment alone of course ;) )

Also check out the Panel Overview on MSDN.

Panel Name       x-Dimension             y-Dimension


- Canvas         Constrained to content     Constrained to content
- DockPanel      Constrained             Constrained
- StackPanel     Constrained             Constrained to content
  (Vertical Orientation)    
- StackPanel     Constrained to content  Constrained 
  (Horizontal Orientation)  
- Grid        Constrained             Constrained, except in cases where Auto apply to rows and columns
- WrapPanel      Constrained to content  Constrained to content