#66 – XAML Elements Map to Instances of .NET Types

As with XML, an element in XAML is a chunk of XAML that is enclased by angle brackets (<, >).  The element may consist of both a start tag and and end tag  (e.g. <Button></Button>) or an empty-element tag (e.g. <Button/>).

The text in the start tag, immediately following the left angle bracket (<) is known as the element name.

In XAML, this element name is the name of a .NET type and the XML element is known as an object element.

A object element in XAML represents an instance of a .NET class.  At run-time, a new instance of a .NET type will be created for each object element found in a .xaml file.

For example, the follow XAML fragment defines three object elements of type Button.

        <Button Content="Top" Height="23" Name="button1" Width="75" />
        <Button Content="Middle" Height="23" Name="button2" Width="75" />
        <Button Content="Bottom" Height="23" Name="button3" Width="75" />

At run-time, three instances of the Button type will be created when this XAML fragment is loaded.