Is there any advantage to using a <StackLayout> or <Grid>?

Question

The code I have looks like this:

<ListView.Header>
   <StackLayout VerticalOptions="FillAndExpand" HorizontalOptions="FillAndExpand">
      <StackLayout Padding="10,35,10,10" Orientation="Horizontal" HorizontalOptions="FillAndExpand">
         <local:ExtLabel ExtStyleId="Body" Text="Custom body Label"></local:ExtLabel>
         <local:ExtLabel ExtStyleId="Header" Text="Custom hdr Label"></local:ExtLabel>
      </StackLayout>
   </StackLayout>
</ListView.Header>

Would it be possible to implement this with a <Grid> and does the <Grid> offer more flexibility than <StackLayout> ?

Answer 1

I think you might want to have a look at this excellent blog post about this. The source is an employee from Xamarin, even more so, one of the founders of Forms.

A few of the bullets in reference to Layouts:

• DO NOT use a StackLayout to host a single child.

• DO NOT use a Grid when a StackLayout suffices.

• DO NOT use multiple StackLayout s when a Grid suffices.

• DO use a Grid to achieve layering.

In regard to looks, you could achieve the same with both. In regard to performance, take a look at the full blog post (and these rules) to decide what is the better option.