wpf MVVM in WPF Basic MVVM example using WPF and C#

Example

This a Basic example for using the MVVM model in a windows desktop application, using WPF and C#. The example code implements a simple "user info" dialog.

The View

The XAML

<Grid>
    <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
        <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
    </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
    <Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
        <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
         <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
         <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
     </Grid.RowDefinitions>

    <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="2" Margin="4" Text="{Binding FullName}" HorizontalAlignment="Center" FontWeight="Bold"/>

    <Label Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="1" Margin="4" Content="First Name:" HorizontalAlignment="Right"/>
    <!-- UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged makes sure that changes in the TextBoxes are immediately applied to the model. -->
    <TextBox Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="1" Margin="4" Text="{Binding FirstName, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Width="200"/>

    <Label Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="2" Margin="4" Content="Last Name:" HorizontalAlignment="Right"/>
    <TextBox Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="2" Margin="4" Text="{Binding LastName, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" HorizontalAlignment="Left"  Width="200"/>

    <Label Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="3" Margin="4" Content="Age:" HorizontalAlignment="Right"/>
    <TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="3" Margin="4" Text="{Binding Age}" HorizontalAlignment="Left"/>

</Grid>

and the code behind

public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
    private readonly MyViewModel _viewModel;

    public MainWindow() {
        InitializeComponent();
        _viewModel = new MyViewModel();
        // The DataContext serves as the starting point of Binding Paths
        DataContext = _viewModel;
    }
}

The View Model

// INotifyPropertyChanged notifies the View of property changes, so that Bindings are updated.
sealed class MyViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    private User user;
    
    public string FirstName { 
        get {return user.FirstName;} 
        set {
            if(user.FirstName != value) {
                user.FirstName = value;
                OnPropertyChange("FirstName");
                // If the first name has changed, the FullName property needs to be udpated as well.
                OnPropertyChange("FullName");
            }
        }
    }

    public string LastName {
        get { return user.LastName; }
        set {
            if (user.LastName != value) {
                user.LastName = value;
                OnPropertyChange("LastName");
                // If the first name has changed, the FullName property needs to be udpated as well.
                OnPropertyChange("FullName");
            }
        }
    }
    
    // This property is an example of how model properties can be presented differently to the View.
    // In this case, we transform the birth date to the user's age, which is read only.
    public int Age { 
        get {
            DateTime today = DateTime.Today;
            int age = today.Year - user.BirthDate.Year;
            if (user.BirthDate > today.AddYears(-age)) age--;
            return age;
        }
    }

    // This property is just for display purposes and is a composition of existing data.
    public string FullName {
        get { return FirstName + " " + LastName; }
    }

    public MyViewModel() {
        user = new User {
            FirstName = "John",
            LastName = "Doe",
            BirthDate = DateTime.Now.AddYears(-30)
        };
    }

    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

    protected void OnPropertyChange(string propertyName) {
        if(PropertyChanged != null) {
            PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
        }
    }
}

The Model

sealed class User
{
    public string FirstName { get; set; }

    public string LastName { get; set; }

    public DateTime BirthDate { get; set; }
}