ListBox.ItemsSource binding in code and in xaml

Question

I wrote simple code like

public ObservableCollection<string> Names …
public Window1()
{
    PutInDataIntoNames();
    InitializeComponent();
    this.listBox1.ItemsSource = Names;
}

and in xaml

<Grid>
    <ListBox Margin="10,11,10,16"
         Name="listBox1"
         Background="Black" 
         Foreground="Orange" 
         />
</Grid>

Then I wanted to set ItemsSource property in xaml. In order to do that I wrote the following:

ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Names}"

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work. Could you explain why and how to do that right?

Answer 1

Do this in code behind

public Window1() 
{ 
    PutInDataIntoNames(); 
    InitializeComponent(); 
    DataContext = this;
} 

and in XAML

<Grid> 
    <ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Names}"
         Margin="10,11,10,16" 
         Name="listBox1" 
         Background="Black"  
         Foreground="Orange"   
         /> 
</Grid>

Ideally you should follow MVVM design to isolate data from code behind.