In-Place Selection Using the ListPicker

Due to the relatively small screen size of the phone, it can be awkward displaying a large number of options to the user without resorting to the use of a second page. At development time, you may not know the number of options that will be displayed, making the choice of using an in-place selection mechanism such as a ListBox or a dedicated option selection page difficult. Moreover, navigating to a page to retrieve a response from a user is cumbersome and entails handling navigation events and so forth.

Fortunately, the ListPicker solves this problem by enabling the user to select from a list of options, either with an expandable in-place picker (if the number of items is small) or with a full-screen picker (if the number of items is large). The ListPicker allows you to tailor the number of items that can be displayed using the expandable picker, according to the design and space requirements of your UI.

ListPicker is an invaluable control for Windows Phone development. It is also highly customizable; through the use of custom data templates, you can change the way the in-place and full-screen pickers are displayed.

ListPicker is most appropriate where the user has several options, and where it makes sense to display only one option while the control does not have focus, such as on a settings page. Conversely, ListPicker is not appropriate for displaying long lists of data where the user is more likely to prefer viewing all options in place; scenarios such as the built-in People or Marketplace applications are better served by a ListBox or LongListSelector.