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ComboBox in a DataGrid

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13 Sep 2006CPOL3 min read 482K   6.6K   84   60
How to embed a ComboBox (DropDownList) in a DataGrid.

Introduction

I needed a ComboBox in my DataGrid. After looking around on the web, I found many examples, but none of them worked for me.

With inspiration from Alastair Stells' article here on The Code Project and whatever else I found on the Internet, I have made the following DataGridComboBoxColumn class.

Why did the other examples not work

All the other examples populate the ComboBox with a DataView, but I need to (want to be able to) populate my ComboBox with an IList (ArrayList) instead of a DataView.

C#
columnComboBox = new DataGridComboBoxColumn();
columnComboBox.comboBox.DataSource = new ArrayList(MyDataClass.GetArray());
columnComboBox.comboBox.DisplayMember = "Name";
columnComboBox.comboBox.ValueMember = "GUID";

And MyDataClass.GetArray() returns MyDataClass[], and has two properties named Name and GUID.

The other examples expect columnComboBox.comboBox.DataSource to be a DataView, and it being an ArrayList generates exceptions.

I use the ComboBox to fetch display text

Since you don't know the type of columnComboBox.comboBox.DataSource, you can't use that to translate between the underlying data and what to display in the DataGrid.

Instead, I use the ComboBox itself, by overriding the ComboBox and implementing this method.

C#
public string GetDisplayText(object value) {
   // Get the text.
   string text   = string.Empty;
   int  memIndex  = -1;
   try {
      base.BeginUpdate();
      memIndex     = base.SelectedIndex;
      base.SelectedValue = value.ToString();
      text      = base.SelectedItem.ToString();
      base.SelectedIndex = memIndex;
   } catch {
     return GetValueText(0);
   } finally {
      base.EndUpdate();
   }

   return text;
} // GetDisplayText

What I do is simple. I select the item which displays the text I want, get the text, and then reselect the original item. By doing it this way, it doesn't matter what data source is used.

Because I use the ComboBox itself to fetch the display text, the ComboBox must be populated before the DataGrid is drawn.

Alastair Stells noted about this in his article:

Another issue which arose was an eye-opener! I discovered the ComboBox does not get populated until the ComboBox.Visible property is set for the first time.

This means that the ComboBox can't be used to fetch the initial display text, because it is not visible when the DataGrid is first shown (painted).

I used a normal ComboBox to illustrate the problem and the solution.

C#
ComboBox comboBox = new ComboBox();
comboBox.DataSource = new ArrayList(MyDataClass.GetArray());
comboBox.DisplayMember = "Name"
comboBox.ValueMember = "GUID"
MessageBox.Show(comboBox.Items.Count.ToString()); // THIS IS ALWAYS 0!

I learned that it didn't help to show the ComboBox, but instead I had to set its parent - which internally commits the data from the DataSource to the Items collection.

C#
ComboBox comboBox = new ComboBox();
comboBox.Parent = this; // this is a Form instance in my case.
comboBox.DataSource = new ArrayList(MyDataClass.GetArray());
comboBox.DisplayMember = "Name"
comboBox.ValueMember = "GUID"
// THIS IS MyDataClass.GetArray().Count
MessageBox.Show(comboBox.Items.Count.ToString());

What else about my DataGridComboBoxColumn

The source code is straightforward. First, I inherited DataGridTextBoxColumn, but my class then evolved into inheriting DataGridColumnStyle. This meant that I had to implement the Paint methods, but at this point, I had some examples of that as well. I like the idea of not having an invisible TextBox behind it all.

How to use

Sadly, I don't know how to "register" my DataGridComboBoxColumn with the GridColumnStyles, enabling me to design the DataGrid columns in the designer. This code does it manually:

C#
// Add three MyDataClass objects, to the DataGridComboBox.
// This is the choices which will apear in the ComboBox in the DataGrid.
// You can see in the source that the MyDataClass doubles
// as a static collection, where the new MyDataClass objects
// automatically is added.
// All the MyDataClass objects can be retreived in an array
// with the static method: MyDataClass.GetArray().
if (MyDataClass.GetArray().Length == 0) {
    new MyDataClass("Denmark");
    new MyDataClass("Faroe Islands (DK)");
    new MyDataClass("Finland");
    new MyDataClass("Greenland (DK)");
    new MyDataClass("Iceland");
    new MyDataClass("Norway");
    new MyDataClass("Sweden");
}


// I don't have a database here, so I make my
// own DataTable with two columns and finally
// populate it with some test rows.
DataTable table = new DataTable("TableOne");

DataColumn column = table.Columns.Add();
column.ColumnName = "country";
// Realy a GUID from the DataGridComboBox.
column.DataType = Type.GetType("System.Guid");

column = table.Columns.Add();
column.ColumnName = "notes";
column.DataType = Type.GetType("System.String");

table.Rows.Add(new object[] {MyDataClass.GetArray()[0].GUID, 
                             "Population 5.368.854"});
table.Rows.Add(new object[] {MyDataClass.GetArray()[1].GUID, 
                             "Population 46.011"});
table.Rows.Add(new object[] {MyDataClass.GetArray()[2].GUID, 
                             "Population 5.183.545"});
table.Rows.Add(new object[] {MyDataClass.GetArray()[3].GUID, 
                             "Population 56.376"});
table.Rows.Add(new object[] {MyDataClass.GetArray()[4].GUID, 
                             "Population 279.384"});
table.Rows.Add(new object[] {MyDataClass.GetArray()[5].GUID, 
                             "Population 4.525.116"});
table.Rows.Add(new object[] {MyDataClass.GetArray()[6].GUID, 
                             "Population 8.876.744"});

// Create a DataGridTableStyle object.
DataGridTableStyle tableStyle = new DataGridTableStyle();
DataGridTextBoxColumn columnTextBox;
DataGridComboBoxColumn columnComboBox;
tableStyle.RowHeadersVisible = true;
tableStyle.RowHeaderWidth = 20;

// Add customized columns.
// Column "notes", which is a simple text box.
columnTextBox = new DataGridTextBoxColumn();
columnTextBox.MappingName = "notes";
columnTextBox.HeaderText = "Country notes";
columnTextBox.Width = 200;
tableStyle.GridColumnStyles.Add(columnTextBox);

// Column "country", which is the ComboBox.
columnComboBox = new DataGridComboBoxColumn();
columnComboBox.comboBox.Parent = this; // Commit dataset.
columnComboBox.comboBox.DataSource = 
               new ArrayList(MyDataClass.GetArray());
columnComboBox.comboBox.DisplayMember = "name";
columnComboBox.comboBox.ValueMember = "GUID";
columnComboBox.MappingName = "country";
columnComboBox.HeaderText = "Country";
columnComboBox.Width = 200;
tableStyle.GridColumnStyles.Add(columnComboBox);

// Add the custom TableStyle to the DataGrid.
datagrid.TableStyles.Clear();
datagrid.TableStyles.Add(tableStyle);
datagrid.DataSource = table;
tableStyle.MappingName = "TableOne";

I think I have focused on a problem here: if you want a ComboBox in your DataGrid, and you want to populate the ComboBox with items from an array containing instances of your own class.

I hope someone finds it useful - enjoy.

Updated September 2006

A few bugs have been found in my source code. Apparently, someone still downloads and tries to use the source, even though .NET 2.0 has solved the problem with a ComboBox in a DataGrid. The new download contains the original source, plus a small VS project with the updated source code.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Systems / Hardware Administrator
Denmark Denmark
See https://rpc-scandinavia.dk/

Comments and Discussions

 
QuestionHow to assign Combobox selcted value to another text cell in datagrid in VB.NET 2005? Pin
bhatiamanoj1712-Oct-09 20:56
bhatiamanoj1712-Oct-09 20:56 
GeneralShow a combobox item to be selected by default Pin
Dinesh Girija Sundaram6-Jul-09 22:20
Dinesh Girija Sundaram6-Jul-09 22:20 
GeneralRe: Show a combobox item to be selected by default Pin
DIPAK@EMSYS19-Aug-09 0:18
DIPAK@EMSYS19-Aug-09 0:18 
Generalcropping images Pin
nace2k216-Jun-09 21:43
nace2k216-Jun-09 21:43 
Questioncombobox should hide after selecting value from combobox and selected value show in datagrid cell Pin
nik4u21-Jan-09 20:02
nik4u21-Jan-09 20:02 
Hi,

When i selected particular value from combobox it properly shows in datagrid after selecting in other cell or other place in datagrid, this may because commit focus on combobox/datagrid.

My Problem is when i selected from combobox, combobox should get hide and selected value shows in selected cell of datagrid without need to select in other cell or place in datagrid.

Any way to handle this,
waiting for reply

Thanks,
Nik
AnswerRe: combobox should hide after selecting value from combobox and selected value show in datagrid cell Pin
nik4u21-Jan-09 22:17
nik4u21-Jan-09 22:17 
GeneralRe: combobox should hide after selecting value from combobox and selected value show in datagrid cell Pin
René Paw Christensen22-Jan-09 8:47
René Paw Christensen22-Jan-09 8:47 
GeneralThe Text is not empty, but the selectIndex is -1 Pin
dqddqq1-Nov-07 17:35
dqddqq1-Nov-07 17:35 
GeneralRe: The Text is not empty, but the selectIndex is -1 Pin
dqddqq6-Nov-07 21:43
dqddqq6-Nov-07 21:43 
GeneralWhy.... Pin
patgrape30-Oct-07 18:21
patgrape30-Oct-07 18:21 
GeneralRe: Why.... Pin
René Paw Christensen31-Oct-07 6:35
René Paw Christensen31-Oct-07 6:35 
QuestionInsert Values dynamically? [modified] Pin
André Stroebel6-Sep-07 0:11
André Stroebel6-Sep-07 0:11 
QuestionIt is not working Pin
DeltaSoft10-Apr-07 19:34
DeltaSoft10-Apr-07 19:34 
QuestionHow to get the selected value in the combobox Pin
max8425-Mar-07 4:25
max8425-Mar-07 4:25 
GeneralProblem with Focus on the GridComboBox Pin
raj30sep7-Nov-06 6:20
raj30sep7-Nov-06 6:20 
GeneralNew row always has first element in combobox selected Pin
Densi24-Oct-06 7:14
Densi24-Oct-06 7:14 
GeneralRe: New row always has first element in combobox selected Pin
Densi25-Oct-06 8:39
Densi25-Oct-06 8:39 
GeneralRe: New row always has first element in combobox selected Pin
dqddqq1-Nov-07 20:25
dqddqq1-Nov-07 20:25 
GeneralCurrentCellChanged Pin
vaishali1017-Sep-06 21:26
vaishali1017-Sep-06 21:26 
GeneralCombo Selection Change Event. Pin
ramya.venkateswaran@gmail.com17-Sep-06 20:50
ramya.venkateswaran@gmail.com17-Sep-06 20:50 
GeneralSOURCE: Form1.cs Pin
René Paw Christensen12-Sep-06 5:21
René Paw Christensen12-Sep-06 5:21 
GeneralSOURCE: DataGridComboBoxColumn.cs Pin
René Paw Christensen12-Sep-06 5:17
René Paw Christensen12-Sep-06 5:17 
GeneralDataGridComboBox Working fine Pin
jssandeep10-Sep-06 20:46
jssandeep10-Sep-06 20:46 
GeneralRe: DataGridComboBox Working fine Pin
jssandeep10-Sep-06 21:03
jssandeep10-Sep-06 21:03 
GeneralThis DataGridCombobox has errors Pin
jssandeep6-Sep-06 22:58
jssandeep6-Sep-06 22:58 

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