WPF layout for autosize textblock and icon floatin

Question

I am trying to get a layout where an icon floats on the right end of a textblock; the textblock grows/shrinks to content. I cannot make this happen without the textblock running outside the grid. For example:

<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Width="500" HorizontalAlignment="Left" ShowGridLines="True" >
 <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
  <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" />
  <ColumnDefinition Width="40"/>
 </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
   <TextBlock x:Name="textBlock" VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="25" TextWrapping="NoWrap" TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis" Grid.Column="0" >
  <TextBlock.Text>longer keeps going and going testgrand you going and then t 
</TextBlock.Text>
  </TextBlock>
<Rectangle Fill="#FFDE3030" Stroke="Black" VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="41" Width="41" Grid.Column="1"/>
</Grid>

Seems like the natural approach and works fine when the text is shorter than the column/grid, except the textbox and column will grow indefinitely and not honor the bounds of the grid.

The inverse, with the icon on the left, works fine with a simpler layout, and the textblock doesn’t grow indefinitely. This is achieved with this markup:

<Grid Grid.Row="1" Width="500" HorizontalAlignment="Left">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
  <ColumnDefinition Width="40" />
  <ColumnDefinition />
  </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
  <Rectangle Fill="#FFDE3030" Stroke="Black" VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="41"  Width="41" Grid.Column="0"/>
  <TextBlock x:Name="textBlock2" VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="25" TextWrapping="NoWrap" TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis" Grid.Column="1" HorizontalAlignment="Left">
  <TextBlock.Text>longer testgrow the textblock and it will just keep growing but it will stop when it gets too </TextBlock.Text>
 </TextBlock>
</Grid>

Any help appreciated. If a grid won’t work, is there an alternate layout where I can get the icon floating on the right of the text, and the textblock will trim text when it’s too long?

Also:

• No, using * size columns doesn't work because the columns are fixed, and the icon won't float at the end of the text

• A DockPanel doesn't work either, or at least I or others I've asked haven't been able to. The best it can do is to have the icon half-cut-off outside the dockpanel's right side.

Answer 1

I had a somewhat similar problem; I wanted to show some content with an externally-sized border area but containing two TextBlocks, where the first is auto-sized and the second is fixed-sized, and the second floats left as the first gets smaller but stops at the right edge (so the first block's text is clipped instead of the second becoming invisible).

Distilling the previous answers, it appears that the key bit of magic is simply to use HorizontalAlignment="Left" with the first column set to star-sized.

<Border BorderThickness="1" BorderBrush="Black">
    <Grid HorizontalAlignment="Left">
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition />
            <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" />
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Text="{Binding Value}" />
        <TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Text="&#x23EB;" Margin="4,0,0,0" Foreground="Blue" />
    </Grid>
</Border>

It appears that the way this works is that (a bit counter-intuitively) the Border stays full width (as set by its parent layout), while the Grid will size to its content -- except that it will not get wider than the containing Border. This keeps the second TextBlock visible.

Answer 2

Can you get what you want by setting MaxWidth on the TextBlock? If you add MaxWidth="460" to your first example:

<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Width="500" HorizontalAlignment="Left" ShowGridLines="True" >
    <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" />
        <ColumnDefinition Width="40"/>
    </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
    <TextBlock MaxWidth="460" x:Name="textBlock" VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="25" TextWrapping="NoWrap" TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis" Grid.Column="0" >
        <TextBlock.Text>longer keeps going and going testgrand you going and then t</TextBlock.Text>
    </TextBlock>
    <Rectangle Fill="#FFDE3030" Stroke="Black" VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="41" Width="41" Grid.Column="1"/>
</Grid>

Then the TextBlock will grow horizontally and always have the rectangle immediately on its right. It won't be wider than 460, so the TextBlock plus the Rectangle shouldn't be wider than 500. If you need the Grid to resize dynamically then you can bind TextBlock.MaxWidth to Grid.ActualWidth with a converter that subtracts the width of the Rectangle.

---

Edit:

Actually, it should be even simpler than that. Use star sizing on the columns, but set MaxWidth instead of Width on the Grid. That way, the grid itself will get smaller when the text is smaller so that the rectangle is always at the edge of the text.

<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" MaxWidth="500" HorizontalAlignment="Left" ShowGridLines="True" >
    <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
        <ColumnDefinition Width="40"/>
    </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
    <TextBlock x:Name="textBlock" VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="25" TextWrapping="NoWrap" TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis" Grid.Column="0" >
        <TextBlock.Text>longer keeps going and going testgrand you going and then t</TextBlock.Text>
    </TextBlock>
    <Rectangle Fill="#FFDE3030" Stroke="Black" VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="41" Width="41" Grid.Column="1"/>
</Grid>

Answer 3

The below code will result in the following output, is that what you are looking for???

longer keeps going and going... [red rectangle]

<Grid Width="200">
    <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
        <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
    </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
    <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Text="longer keeps going and going testgrand you going and then t" TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis"/> 
    <Rectangle Grid.Column="1" Fill="#FFDE3030" Stroke="Black" VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="41" Width="41" />
</Grid>

Answer 4

Someone internally suggested this answer, which works:

    <WrapPanel HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top">
        <Grid>
            <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                <ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
                <ColumnDefinition Width="10" />
            </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <AccessText TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis" Grid.Column="0" Margin="0,0,4,0" Text="type more typingon the long hi longer than what if you keep tyingin and get to the end and that's why it changed because you were in the middle" />
            <Border Grid.Column="1" Width="10" Height="10" Background="Red" />
        </Grid>
    </WrapPanel>

The wrappanel seems to provide the necessary magic. I haven't tried Quartermeister's but will save it for future reference!

Our final layout is more complicated and looks like this (it's the header bar for an expander):

<WrapPanel Orientation="Vertical">
    <Grid x:Name="HeaderSite" >
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="19" />
            <ColumnDefinition Width="16" />
            <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" />
            <ColumnDefinition />
            <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" /> <!-- 7/14: fix from list: wrap the whole thing in a wrappanel. Allows for one * col. -->
            <ColumnDefinition Width="19" />
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <ToggleButton  x:Name="buttonExpanderToggleButton"
            Height="20" VerticalAlignment="Top"
                />
        <Image x:Name="imageActivityIcon" Grid.Column="1"
            Height="16" Width="16" 
            HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" 
            Margin="0"/>

        <AccessText x:Name="textActivityID" 
            Grid.Column="2"
            VerticalAlignment="Top" Margin="5,2,0,0" 
            TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis"
            FontSize="12" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Text="MA77777"/>
        <AccessText x:Name="textActivityHeader" 
            Grid.Column="3"
            VerticalAlignment="Top" Margin="0,2,0,0" 
            TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis"
            FontSize="12" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Text="Title title title title aand Title title title title a little and if you type more what happens as you keep typing "/>
        <AccessText x:Name="textActivityStatus" 
            FontWeight="Normal" 
            FontStyle="Italic" 
            Grid.Column="4"
            TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis"
            VerticalAlignment="Top" Margin="0,2,8,0"
            FontSize="12" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Text="(On Hold)"/>
        <Image x:Name="imageLink" 
            Stretch="None" VerticalAlignment="Top" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Grid.Column="5"/>
    </Grid>
</WrapPanel>

This works fine too even with the other auto sized columns. The key seems to be the wrappanel and the one * sized column. If you set them all to auto it doesn't work.

I hope this and Quartermeister's answer helps somebody, because this drove me #$%#$% crazy.