WPF TextBlock StringFormat

This post is not a hot news, but it may help somebody ;)

Before .NET 3.5 SP1 when I wanted to display formatted information in TextBlock I had to do some workarounds… For example to display coordinates (int x, int y) there were two possibilities (at least):

1. Create readonly property in the model and bind to it (public string Coordinates {get{ return String.Format(“X:{0} Y:{0}”,x,y);}})
2. User couple of Label control to show the intended “line”.

Both approaches suck :) But, since .NET 3.5 SP1 there is a better solution to that problem :D You can write code like this:

<TextBlock Text="{Binding Date, StringFormat={}{0:MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm tt}}" />

or this:

<TextBlock>
    <TextBlock.Text>
        <MultiBinding StringFormat="X:{0} Y:{1}">
            <Binding Path="X" />
            <Binding Path="Y" />
        </MultiBinding>
    </TextBlock.Text>
</TextBlock>

Last sample solves my problem, and I don’t need to add any additional properties.