#352 – Use IsThreeState Property to Create a CheckBox that Has an Indeterminate State

The CheckBox control normally has two states–checked or unchecked.  The current state can be determined by reading the IsChecked property, which can take on the values true and false.

You can also use a CheckBox to represent an indeterminate value–a value that is neither true nor false.  To indicate that a CheckBox can have three states (checked, not checked and indetermine), set the IsThreeState property to true.

        <CheckBox Content="Happy" IsThreeState="True"/>

At run-time, you’ll notice that the CheckBox will cycle through the three states. A solid box rather than a check mark indicates the indeterminate state.

In code, you can read the IsChecked property to determine the state.  IsChecked is a nullable bool and can have one of the values:

• true  (checked)
• false  (not checked)
• null  (indeterminate)