#1,059 – Clipping vs. Resizing in a Grid

A Grid appears to clip its child elements, in that the elements are constrained to fit within a particular grid cell.

In reality, however, a Grid is often resizing, rather than clipping, the child elements.  If the child element does not specify an explicit size, the Grid will ask the child to be a smaller size, rather than simply clipping it at the grid cell boundary.

Below, the top Button does not have an explicit width, but the bottom Button does.  As we shrink the Grid, the top button will be resized, while the bottom button will be clipped.  The labels indicate the actual button widths.

    <Grid ShowGridLines="True" Background="Bisque"
          Margin="10" ClipToBounds="false">
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition/>
            <RowDefinition/>
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition/>
            <ColumnDefinition/>
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

        <Label Content="{Binding ElementName=myButton, Path=ActualWidth}"/>
        <Button Name="myButton" Margin="2"
                Grid.Column="1" Content="Click Here Please"
                HorizontalAlignment="Center"
                VerticalAlignment="Center"/>

        <Label Grid.Row="1" Content="{Binding ElementName=myButton2, Path=ActualWidth}"/>
        <Button Name="myButton2" Margin="2"
                Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1" Content="Click Here Please"
                Width="100"
                VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
    </Grid>