Why use ItemSource="{Binding}" Without A Path

Question

I was reading some code and came across this;

<TabControl ItemSource="{Binding}"
    ItemTemplate="{StaticResource TabItemTemplate}" />

I have a pretty good handle on {Binding Path=Something} but I can't find a sastisfactory nswer to ItemSource="{Binding}" all by itself. The nearest I got to an answer was

"This simply returns the current data context (more about that later)." BTW, there was nothing more.

So I wonder if anyone would like to expand on this and leave out all the "One Way, Two Way, Element... binding. Just the part about {Binding}.

Thank you.

Answer 1

When you specify a path in a binding, it's relative to the DataContext; if the path is empty, then it refers to the DataContext itself. So the binding will just return the current DataContext as its value.

Answer 2

ItemsSource="{Binding}" means binding the datacontext of the TabControl to the ItemsSource.

ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Something}", means binding the (DataContext of the TabControl).Something to the ItemsSource.