Do I need my code-behind file?

Question

In my WPF app, all I have in my code-behind is the following:

public partial class MainWindow
{    
    public MainWindow()
    {
         InitializeComponent();
    }    
}

Can I completely remove the code-behind file from my project or does it have to stay there? My background is in web app development and I'm kind of relating this to a code-behind file with an empty Page_Load() method, which I would typically remove.

Answer 1

You can remove it, if you use one of these techniques:

1: Remove the x:class declaration from the top of your XAML file, and find a different way to instantiate the object (e.g., you can't use new MainWindow(), but you can use XamlReader.Load and cast the result to a Window).

or

2: Use this approach:

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication2.MainWindow"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    Title="MainWindow" Height="300" Width="300">
  <StackPanel>

    <Button x:Name="mybutton">Hello</Button>

    <x:Code>
      <![CDATA[
      public MainWindow()
      {
        InitializeComponent();

        mybutton.Content = "Goodbye";
      }
      ]]>
    </x:Code>
  </StackPanel>
</Window>

This moves the InitializeComponent call into your XAML, so you can delete the codebehind file.