In WPF, what are the differences between the x:Name and Name attributes?

Question

The title says it all. Sometimes it seems that the Name and x:Name attributes are interchangeable.

So, what are the definitive differences

Answer 1

They are not the same thing.

x:Name is a xaml concept, used mainly to reference elements. When you give an element the x:Name xaml attribute, "the specified x:Name becomes the name of a field that is created in the underlying code when xaml is processed, and that field holds a reference to the object." (MSDN) So, it's a designer-generated field, which has internal access by default.

Name is the existing string property of a FrameworkElement, listed as any other wpf element property in the form of a xaml attribute.

As a consequence, this also means x:Name can be used on a wider range of objects. This is a technique to enable anything in xaml to be referenced by a given name.

Answer 2

There really is only one name in XAML, the x:Name. A framework, such as WPF, can optionally map one of its properties to XAML's x:Name by using the RuntimeNamePropertyAttribute on the class that designates one of the classes properties as mapping to the x:Name attribute of XAML.

The reason this was done was to allow for frameworks that already have a concept of "Name" at runtime, such as WPF. In WPF, for example, FrameworkElement introduces a Name property.

In general, a class does not need to store the name for x:Name to be useable. All x:Name means to XAML is generate a field to store the value in the code behind class. What the runtime does with that mapping is framework dependent.

So, why are there two ways to do the same thing? The simple answer is because there are two concepts mapped onto one property. WPF wants the name of an element preserved at runtime (which is usable through Bind, among other things) and XAML needs to know what elements you want to be accessible by fields in the code behind class. WPF ties these two together by marking the Name property as an alias of x:Name.

In the future, XAML will have more uses for x:Name, such as allowing you to set properties by referring to other objects by name, but in 3.5 and prior, it is only used to create fields.

Whether you should use one or the other is really a style question, not a technical one. I will leave that to others for a recommendation.

See also AutomationProperties.Name VS x:Name, AutomationProperties.Name is used by accessibility tools and some testing tools.

Answer 3

x:Name means: create a field in the code behind to hold a reference to this object.

Name means: set the name property of this object.

Answer 4

When you declare a Button element in XAML you are referring to a class defined in windows run time called Button.

Button has many attribute such as background, text, margin, ..... and an attribute called Name.

Now when you declare a Button in XAML is like creating an anonymous object that happened to have an attribute called Name.

In general you can not refer to an anonymous object, but in WPF framework XAML processor enables you to refer to that object by whatever value you have given to Name attribute.

So far so good.

Another way to create an object is create a named object instead of anonymous object. In this case XAML namespace has an attribute for an object called Name (and since it is in XAML name space thus have X:) that you may set so you can identify your object and refer to it.

Conclusion:

Name is an attribute of a specific object, but X:Name is one attribute of that object (there is a class that defines a general object).

Answer 5

It's not a WPF item but a standard XML one and BtBh has correctly answered it, x refers to the default namespace. In XML when you do not prefix an element/attribute with a namespace it assumes you want the default namespace. So typing just Name is nothing more than a short hand for x:Name. More details on XML namespaces can be found at link text

Answer 6

The only difference is that if you are using user Controls into a control from Same Assembly then Name will not identify your control and you will get an error " Use x:Name for controls in the same Assembly". So x:Name is the WPF versioning of naming controls in WPF. Name is just used as a Winform Legacy. They wanted to differentiate the naming of controls in WPF and winforms as they use attributes in Xaml to identify controls from other assemblies they used x: for Names of control.

Just keep in mind dont put a name for a control just for the sake of keeping it as it resides in memory as a blank and it will give you a warning that Name has been applied for a control buts its never used.