WPF Multiline TextBox for large content

Question

In a WPF application, I want to build a "Find in Files" output pane, in which I can stream large quantity of text, without re-allocating memory at each line, like the TextBox would do.

The WPF TextBox has a single Text property which stores a contiguous string. Each time, I want to add content, I need to do textBox.Text += "New Text", which is bad.

Ideally, that control would be virtual and require a minimum of resources, just for the visible lines.

I thought about using a standard ListBox with a VirtualizingStackPanel, but it does not allow Text Selection across lines.

(At each new line added, I want the control to update)

Any suggestion?

Answer 1

If you do not expect much more than ten-thousands of search results in your application, a TextBlock control or readonly multiline TextBox will suffice by far.

The TextBox class has an AppendText() method which should be fast enough for you.

If you need text highlighting / formatting then maybe you want to use RichTextBox.

Answer 2

If you have really large content, then unfortunately all the WPF textbox and similar controls are very slow. See this question. You could use AvalonEdit as a replacement.

Answer 3

Have you considered or tried the RichTextBox control?

Answer 4

A StringBuilder, just append the text to the String builder and instead of doing

textBox.Text += moreText;

do

myStringBuilder.Append(moreText);
textBox.Text = myStringBuilder.ToString();

This should take care of the Schlemiel the Painter's algorithm.

Of course, the string builder should have to be a member of your class so it exists through your object's life span.