How to programmatically select an item in a WPF TreeView?

Question

How is it possible to programmatically select an item in a WPF TreeView? The ItemsControl model seems to prevent it.

Answer 1

I think this is the simplest solution:

private void MouseDownEventProcessing(TreeNodeMouseClickEventArgs e)
{
    tvEmployeeDirectory.SelectedNode = e.Node;
}

Answer 2

If you want to select item located withing children of child you can user recursion to do that.

public bool Select(TreeViewItem item, object select) // recursive function to set item selection in treeview
{
    if (item == null)
        return false;
    TreeViewItem child = item.ItemContainerGenerator.ContainerFromItem(select) as TreeViewItem;
    if (child != null)
    {
        child.IsSelected = true;
        return true;
    }
    foreach (object c in item.Items)
    {
        bool result = Select(item.ItemContainerGenerator.ContainerFromItem(c) as TreeViewItem, select);
        if (result == true)
            return true;
    }
    return false;
}

Answer 3

I wrote a Helper class for this, which supports MVVM and lazy loaded items.

public class TreeViewHelper<TModel>
{
    public TreeViewHelper(TreeView treeView, Func<TModel, TModel> getParent, Func<TModel, IList<TModel>> getSubItems)
    {
        TreeView = treeView;
        GetParent = getParent;
        GetSubItems = getSubItems;
    }

    public TreeView TreeView { get; }
    public Func<TModel, TModel> GetParent { get; }
    public Func<TModel, IList<TModel>> GetSubItems { get; }

    public void SelectItemWhileLoaded(TModel node, IList<TModel> rootNodes)
    {
        if (TreeView.IsLoaded)
        {
            SelectItem(node, rootNodes);
        }
        else
        {
            TreeView.Loaded += TreeView_Loaded;
            void TreeView_Loaded(object sender, System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs e)
            {
                TreeView.Loaded -= TreeView_Loaded;
                SelectItem(node, rootNodes);
            }
        }
    }


    public void SelectItem(TModel node, IList<TModel> rootNodes)
    {
        Stack<TModel> nodes = new Stack<TModel>();
        //push into stack
        while (!rootNodes.Contains(node))
        {
            nodes.Push(node);
            node = GetParent(node);
        }
        TreeViewItem treeViewItem = TreeView.ItemContainerGenerator
            .ContainerFromItem(node) as TreeViewItem;
        if (nodes.Count == 0)
        {
            //Top level
            treeViewItem.IsSelected = true;
            treeViewItem.BringIntoView();
            return;
        }
        Expanded(true);
        void Expanded(bool top)
        {
            if (!top)
            {
                treeViewItem = treeViewItem.ItemContainerGenerator
                    .ContainerFromItem(node) as TreeViewItem;
                if (nodes.Count == 0)
                {
                    treeViewItem.IsSelected = true;
                    treeViewItem.BringIntoView();
                    return;
                }
            }
            node = nodes.Pop();
            treeViewItem.IsExpanded = true;
            if (treeViewItem.ItemContainerGenerator.Status == GeneratorStatus.ContainersGenerated)
            {
                Expanded(true);
            }
            else
            {
                //Lazy
                treeViewItem.ItemContainerGenerator.StatusChanged += ItemContainerGenerator_StatusChanged;
            }
        }
        void ItemContainerGenerator_StatusChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (treeViewItem.ItemContainerGenerator.Status == GeneratorStatus.ContainersGenerated)
            {
                treeViewItem.ItemContainerGenerator.StatusChanged -= ItemContainerGenerator_StatusChanged;
                Expanded(false);
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

The proposed answer doesn't work. @fandisusanto's answer probably does work, but it can be made simpler. This is the simplest answer I can come up with:

    private static void DeselectTreeViewItem(IEnumerable<TreeViewItem> treeViewItems)
    {
        foreach (var treeViewItem in treeViewItems)
        {
            if (treeViewItem.IsSelected)
            {
                treeViewItem.IsSelected = false;
                return;
            }

            DeselectTreeViewItem(treeViewItem.Items.Cast<TreeViewItem>());
        }
    }

Usage:

    private void ClearSelectedItem()
    {
        if (AssetTreeView.SelectedItem != null)
        {
            DeselectTreeViewItem(AssetTreeView.Items.Cast<TreeViewItem>());
        }
    }