DataGrid Not Found in Silverlight 4

I created a fresh new Silverlight 4 project. I opened up MainPage.xaml and started typing “DataGrid”… but intellisense didn’t show it.

I found out that I needed to add the following to the top of my Xaml file:

xmlns:sdk="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation/sdk"


In then started showing up in intellisense. I tried to compile the simple app and I got an error out of the MainPage.g.i.cs file. The error is:

“The type or namespace name ‘DataGrid’ could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)”

I opened up the Silverlight MSDN for the DataGrid control and found out that my DataGrid is in the System.Windows.Controls namespace and the System.Windows.Controls.Data assembly. I didn’t see it in my references tree, so I tried to add a .NET reference. Unfortunately, “System.Windows.Controls” or “System.Windows.Controls.Data” weren’t in the list.

It turns out that you need to navigate to the “Browse” tab in the “Add Reference Dialog” and then add the file “System.Windows.Controls.Data” which is typically found in “C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Silverlight\v4.0\Libraries\Client”

Hope this helps someone.

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-JP