WPF DataGrid SelectedItem

Run the following example and you'll see why it doesn't work.

XAML:

<Window x:Class="DataGridTest.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
    <DockPanel>
        <TextBlock DockPanel.Dock="Bottom" Text="{Binding SelectedItem, ElementName=dataGrid}"/>
        <TextBlock DockPanel.Dock="Bottom" Text="{Binding SelectedItem}"/>
        <DataGrid x:Name="dataGrid" ItemsSource="{Binding Items}" SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedItem}" CanUserAddRows="True" CanUserDeleteRows="True" AutoGenerateColumns="False">
            <DataGrid.Columns>
                <DataGridTextColumn Header="First Name" Binding="{Binding FirstName}"/>
                <DataGridTextColumn Header="Last Name" Binding="{Binding FirstName}"/>
            </DataGrid.Columns>
        </DataGrid>
    </DockPanel>
</Window>

Code-behind:

namespace DataGridTest
{
    using System.Collections.Generic;
    using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
    using System.ComponentModel;
    using System.Windows;

    public partial class MainWindow : Window, INotifyPropertyChanged
    {
        private readonly ICollection<Person> items;
        private Person selectedItem;

        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            this.items = new ObservableCollection<Person>();
            this.items.Add(new Person
                {
                    FirstName = "Kent",
                    LastName = "Boogaart"
                });
            this.items.Add(new Person
            {
                FirstName = "Tempany",
                LastName = "Boogaart"
            });

            this.DataContext = this;
        }

        public ICollection<Person> Items
        {
            get { return this.items; }
        }

        public Person SelectedItem
        {
            get { return this.selectedItem; }
            set
            {
                this.selectedItem = value;
                this.OnPropertyChanged("SelectedItem");
            }
        }

        private void OnPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
        {
            var handler = this.PropertyChanged;

            if (handler != null)
            {
                handler(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
            }
        }

        public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
    }

    public class Person
    {
        public string FirstName
        {
            get;
            set;
        }

        public string LastName
        {
            get;
            set;
        }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            return FirstName + " " + LastName;
        }
    }
}

As you can see when running, selecting the "new" row causes a sentinel value to be set as the selected item in the DataGrid. However, WPF is unable to convert that sentinel item to a Person, so the SelectedItem binding fails to convert.

To fix this, you could put a converter on your binding that detects the sentinel and returns null when detected. Here's a converter that does so:

namespace DataGridTest
{
    using System;
    using System.Windows.Data;

    public sealed class SentinelConverter : IValueConverter
    {
        public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
        {
            return value;
        }

        public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
        {
            if (item.Equals(CollectionView.NewItemPlaceholder)))
            {
                return null;
            }

            return value;
        }
    }
}

As you can see, it is an unfortunate necessity to test against the ToString() value of the sentinel, because it is an internal type. You could alternatively (or in addition) check that GetType().Name is NamedObject.