Event Handlers in WPF - Page 1
       by kirupa  |  1 March 2007

In the previous page you got a brief overview of what event handlers are and how to add them usual a visual editor like Visual Studio or Expression Blend.

Code Approach
While the visual approach I outlined above will be the preferred way of binding events to an event handler, you can just as easily use code to accomplish the same thing. You may be wondering why you would choose a less visual approach. One good reason is, if you are dynamically creating a control, the only way to attach events would be through code. I provide an example of that a few paragraphs down, so you can see what I mean.

Let's say we have a button called btnOK, and our goal is to attach an event to it using just code. All you have to do is pick the appropriate event you wish to use and link it to a new RoutedEventHandler with the name of your event handler:

btnOK.Click += new RoutedEventHandler(ButtonOkClicked);

If you use Visual Studio for writing the code, the inline auto-complete is very handy:

[ auto-complete is quite helpful in times like this ]

Right now you may be wondering how anybody could know to use RoutedEventHandler without the help of AutoComplete. If you are just getting started with WPF, it may be difficult to know that, but just remember that you need to bind an event to an event handler. Later in this article and in greater detail in subsequent articles, I will explain these in more detail.

Like I hinted at in the previous paragraph, one disadvantage with the code approach is that if you want to use events or event handlers beyond the common ones that you are familiar with, you will have to spend some extra time combing through the displayed methods and properties for your object to find the appropriate event:

[ browsing through methods and properties ]

In the visual approach, all events are grouped together in one pane, but in the larger scheme of things, it is just a minor detail that you should be aware of.

Getting the event bound to an event handler is just one part of what you need to. The second part is to actually create an event handler. Before I go into greater detail, let's first look closely at the event hander I show below:

private void ButtonOkClicked(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

{

this.Close();

}

Notice that the event hander takes in two arguments from the event that fired - the sender and the event. Basically, the sender is the control you clicked on, and the event (e) is the particular input that triggered the event handler such as a key press or a mouse click.

If you took the visual approach, the above event handler would automatically be created for you. If you used the code approach, you would need to define an event handler following a similar structure with the two arguments. Let's look in greater detail at what the two arguments actually do on the next few pages.

Onwards to the next page!

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