If you play around with the DataGrid in Silverlight and try some scenarios, maybe you come around the FormatException with the Message “Input String is not in a correct format”. You get this Exception if your Data-Object e.g. has a Property of type int and the user enters some characters in the DataGrid. The Exception doesn’t come up, instead the DataGrid shows it as a validation error. Let’s look at an example. Image you’ve a very simple Person-class containing a FirstName-Property of type string and an Age-Property of type int:

public class Person : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
  private int? _age;
  private string _firstName;
  public string FirstName
  {
    get { return _firstName; }
    set
    {
      _firstName = value;
      Changed("FirstName");
    }
  }

  public int? Age
  {
    get { return _age; }
    set
    {
      _age = value;
      Changed("Age");
    }
  }

  private void Changed(string propertyName)
  {
    if (PropertyChanged != null)
      PropertyChanged(this, 
        new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
  }

  public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
}

Now let’s fill up a List with some Test-Persons and add that list to the DataContext of your page:

public MainPage()
{
  InitializeComponent();
  this.DataContext = new List { 
    new Person{ FirstName="Thomas",Age=29},
    new Person{ FirstName="Julia",Age=27},
    new Person{ FirstName="Ben",Age=1},
  };
}

No in the XAML-File of your MainPage a DataGrid could be defined like below. Notice the ItemsSource-Property that is bound to the DataContext:

<my:DataGrid ItemsSource="{Binding}"
             AutoGenerateColumns="False">     
  <my:DataGrid.Columns>
    <my:DataGridTextColumn Header="FirstName"
                           Binding="{Binding FirstName}"/>
    <my:DataGridTextColumn Header="Age"
                           Binding="{Binding Age}"/>
  </my:DataGrid.Columns>
</my:DataGrid>

When the User now enters a string as Age, the FormatException is raised before the Property is updated and the Message of the FormatException is displayed in the DataGrid:

Now the question is, where to change this string. The DataGrid has a BindingValidationError-Event, but there you have only read access to the FormatException and the Errormessage. In the Property itself you can’t do anything, because the Exception is thrown before the Age-Property is set.

The solution is to define a Property special for Display in the Person-class. Normally you would create a ViewModel that encapsulates the Person-class and contains the additional property. In my case I implement the Property directly in the Person-class. I call it AgeDisplay-Property. Inside that property you can then throw your own FormatException with your special text. My Person-class now looks like this:

public class Person : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
  private int? _age;
  private string _firstName;
  public string FirstName
  {
    get { return _firstName; }
    set
    {
      _firstName = value;
      Changed("FirstName");
    }
  }

  public int? Age
  {
    get { return _age; }
    set
    {
      _age = value;
      Changed("Age");
      Changed("AgeDisplay");
    }
  }


  public string AgeDisplay
  {
    get { return Age.ToString(); ; }
    set
    {
      if (value == null)
      {
        Age = null;
        return;
      }
      int result;
      if (int.TryParse(value, out result))
      {
        Age = result;
      }
      else
      {
        throw new FormatException("Age must be a number. "
                        + " Characters are not allowed.");
      }
    }
  }

  private void Changed(string propertyName)
  {
    if (PropertyChanged != null)
      PropertyChanged(this, 
        new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
  }

  public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
}

Now you simple bind the DataGrid’s Column to AgeDisplay instead of Age:

<my:DataGrid ItemsSource="{Binding}"
             AutoGenerateColumns="False">     
  <my:DataGrid.Columns>
    <my:DataGridTextColumn Header="FirstName"
                           Binding="{Binding FirstName}"/>
    <my:DataGridTextColumn Header="Age"
                           Binding="{Binding AgeDisplay}"/>
  </my:DataGrid.Columns>
</my:DataGrid>

When the user now enters a string into the Age-Column, the text of the FormatException thrown in the AgeDisplay-Property is displayed: