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StackPanel Class

A panel that arranges its child elements in a single line, either vertically or horizontally.

Namespace: DevExpress.Utils.Layout

Assembly: DevExpress.Utils.v24.1.dll

NuGet Packages: DevExpress.Utils, DevExpress.Wpf.Core

Declaration

public class StackPanel :
    XtraLayoutPanelBase,
    IStackPanel,
    IXtraLayoutPanel

Remarks

The Stack Panel arranges its child controls in one of four directions depending on the StackPanel.LayoutDirection setting. The figure below illustrates a top-to-bottom layout.

stack-panel

To populate a panel at design time, drag and drop controls onto the panel. You can drag child panel elements to re-arrange them.

To populate a stack panel in code, add elements to the panel’s Controls collection.

 stackPanel1.Controls.Add(this.labelControl6);
 stackPanel1.Controls.Add(this.textEdit5);
 stackPanel1.Controls.Add(this.labelControl5);
 stackPanel1.Controls.Add(this.textEdit6);
 stackPanel1.Controls.Add(this.labelControl4);
 stackPanel1.Controls.Add(this.textEdit8);
 stackPanel1.Controls.Add(this.labelControl3);
 stackPanel1.Controls.Add(this.textEdit9);
 stackPanel1.Controls.Add(this.simpleButton5);
 stackPanel1.Controls.Add(this.simpleButton6);
 stackPanel1.LayoutDirection = DevExpress.Utils.Layout.StackPanelLayoutDirection.TopBottom;
 stackPanel1.Padding = new System.Windows.Forms.Padding(0, 10, 0, 0);

Stretch Controls

You can stretch a control to make it occupy all the available space in a stack panel. To do this at design time, enable the control’s Stretched extension property. In the figure below, a TextEdit control between two SimpleButtons is stretched.

stack-panel

To do that in code, call the StackPanel.SetStretched(Control, Boolean) method and pass the required control as the first method parameter.

stackPanel3.SetStretched(textEdit10, true);

To limit the size of a stretched control, use its MaximumSize value.

Note

The Stretched extender property is ignored in auto-size mode.

Auto-Size Mode

The StackPanel can automatically adjust its size to fit its contents. Use the following properties to enable the panel’s auto-size mode:

  • AutoSize - Set this option to true to enable the auto-size functionality.
  • AutoSizeMode - Use this property to choose between auto-size modes: GrowOnly or GrowAndShrink. See the AutoSizeMode MSDN topic for more information.

Tip

You can also enable the auto-size functionality for controls within the StackPanel and for containers (for example, a form) where the StackPanel resides.

Example

The following example enables the auto-size functionality for the panel and the form that contains this panel. The code also adds an empty space around the panel via the Padding setting.

image

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
    this.AutoSize = true;
    this.AutoSizeMode = AutoSizeMode.GrowAndShrink;
    stackPanel1.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
    stackPanel1.Padding = new Padding(10);
    stackPanel1.AutoSize = true;
    stackPanel1.AutoSizeMode = AutoSizeMode.GrowAndShrink;
}

Note

The Stretched extender property is ignored in auto-size mode.

Other Settings

  • AutoScroll - Gets or sets whether the panel enables scrollbars that allow you to scroll to any controls placed outside the panel’s visible boundaries.
  • AutoTabOrder - Gets or sets whether the panel maintains an automatic tab order of its child controls.
  • LabelVertAlignment - Gets or sets how LabelControls are vertically aligned in relation to the text editors displayed to the label’s right (to the label’s left in right-to-left locales).
See Also