Click here to Skip to main content
15,891,633 members
Articles / Programming Languages / C#

Multi Column Combo Cell for the .NET 2.0 DataGridView Control

Rate me:
Please Sign up or sign in to vote.
3.19/5 (14 votes)
25 Dec 2008CPOL2 min read 194.9K   9.8K   70   66
This article will demonstrate an approach to solve the issue of a multi-column cell for DataGridView.

Illustration.gif

Introduction

This article will demonstrate an approach to solve the issue of multi-column combobox cells in a DataGridView in VS8.

*New in this version

*After multiple comments that I got about the old implementation, I decided to make this solution nicer. I am following the solution using designed DataSet tables and dropping some workarounds and fixing some bugs I had in my first version!

Background

Several months ago, I invested several days in order to find how to implement the multiline combobox issue. I found several solutions but they didn't fit my needs. I wanted something very simple. And I found it using the owner draw approach - just drawing a multicolumn control by myself. Here are the results.

Using the code

The code implementation and usage is extremely simple.

You do all the steps as you do if you want to embed a regular combobox into your DataGridView, but in place of the DataGridViewComboColumn, you use my class DataGridViewMultiColumnComboColumn. This class is derived from DataGridViewComboColumn. Additionally, you need to set the column CellTemplate with the DataGridViewMultiColumnComboCell class that is derived from DataGridViewMultiColumnComboCell. After creating the DataGridViewMultiColumnComboCell class, you will need to set two data members in order to allow the multiline combobox to display the relevant values.

C#
//create the multicolumncombo column
DataGridViewMultiColumnComboColumn newColumn = 
            new DataGridViewMultiColumnComboColumn();

newColumn.CellTemplate = new DataGridViewMultiColumnComboCell();
//Set the source table settings from the database for combobox values
newColumn.DataSource = ds.LogMessageTypes;
newColumn.DisplayMember = ds.LogMessageTypes.TypeNameColumn.ColumnName;
newColumn.ValueMember = ds.LogMessageTypes.TypeIdColumn.ColumnName;

//this property point on main table of this grid to bind to this column
newColumn.DataPropertyName = ds.LogTable.TypeColumn.ColumnName;
newColumn.HeaderText = ds.LogTable.TypeColumn.ColumnName;

newColumn.DisplayStyle = DataGridViewComboBoxDisplayStyle.Nothing;

dataGridView1.Columns.Remove(ds.LogTable.TypeColumn.ColumnName);
dataGridView1.Columns.Insert(position, newColumn);
dataGridView1.Columns[position].Width = 300;

Points of interest

First, I am very happy that after 12 years of programming experience I found a way to contribute something small to this great professional discussion.

I am originally a C++/MFC programmer and I still work mostly using these programming languages. So I am strictly used to things that implement non-standard UIs. I think Microsoft did a great job developing the .NET platform. Anyway.

BTW: I still love developing ActiveX in C++ but there is no client that wants it anymore and I can understand why :).

Disclaimer of warranty

All of the code, information, instructions, and recommendations in this article are offered on a strictly "as is" basis. This material is offered as a free public resource, without any warranty, expressed or implied.

This code is completely free. I will be happy to know if it was helpful for somebody.

License

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


Written By
Software Developer (Senior)
Israel Israel
Software Development freelancer.

Comments and Discussions

 
AnswerRe: How to display in the comboxbox all the items Pin
IssaharNoam25-Dec-08 5:58
IssaharNoam25-Dec-08 5:58 
QuestionAnyone have some more solid code? Pin
Member 359872110-Jun-08 8:12
Member 359872110-Jun-08 8:12 
AnswerRe: Anyone have some more solid code? Pin
IssaharNoam10-Jun-08 10:20
IssaharNoam10-Jun-08 10:20 
AnswerRe: Anyone have some more solid code? Pin
IssaharNoam25-Dec-08 6:00
IssaharNoam25-Dec-08 6:00 
QuestionMultiline combobox Pin
kaandemirtas3-Feb-08 7:43
kaandemirtas3-Feb-08 7:43 
AnswerRe: Multiline combobox Pin
IssaharNoam25-Dec-08 6:00
IssaharNoam25-Dec-08 6:00 
QuestionQuestion from the article Multi Column Combo Cell C#, hoping for author to help! Pin
quakertistar1-Oct-07 3:17
quakertistar1-Oct-07 3:17 
AnswerRe: Question from the article Multi Column Combo Cell C#, hoping for author to help! Pin
IssaharNoam7-Oct-07 5:26
IssaharNoam7-Oct-07 5:26 
Hello!

First, thanks for the interest for this approach.

Second, I succeeded to reproduce that issue you reported.

Third, my exercise is build in a very simple restricted way just to show the approach. That means that I used the combobox first column text be used as unique key for the all the data inside the combobox. It is very far from having a full generic control Frown | :(

Now, after all the excuses are said Smile | :) , in order to fix this behavior (I didn't fully tested this solution so please debug it!),
please make the following change in OnDrawItem method:

1. comment the following row:
DataRow[] itemRows = valuesTbl.Select("[" + joinByField + "]='" + currentText + "'");

2. change the following row:
DataRow currentRow = itemRows[0];

to:
DataRow currentRow = valuesTbl.Rows[e.Index];

Now it will mean that we don't search values in table by key but by their order in combobox.
Please be cautive with that, I didn't test this solution deeply!

This way will cause the joinFieldName property to loose it's meaning!!!

I will try to find time in near future to make this approach being more generic.

I hope it will help you Rose | [Rose]

Thanks
IssaharNoam
GeneralRe: Question from the article Multi Column Combo Cell C#, hoping for author to help! Pin
quakertistar8-Oct-07 4:49
quakertistar8-Oct-07 4:49 
GeneralDrop Down Arrow Pin
Barry T7-Sep-07 7:18
Barry T7-Sep-07 7:18 
GeneralRe: Drop Down Arrow Pin
Barry T7-Sep-07 8:35
Barry T7-Sep-07 8:35 
QuestionC++ *and* C#? Pin
#realJSOP10-Apr-07 2:39
mve#realJSOP10-Apr-07 2:39 
AnswerRe: C++ *and* C#? Pin
toxcct10-Apr-07 7:41
toxcct10-Apr-07 7:41 
GeneralRe: C++ *and* C#? Pin
IssaharNoam10-Apr-07 9:28
IssaharNoam10-Apr-07 9:28 

General General    News News    Suggestion Suggestion    Question Question    Bug Bug    Answer Answer    Joke Joke    Praise Praise    Rant Rant    Admin Admin   

Use Ctrl+Left/Right to switch messages, Ctrl+Up/Down to switch threads, Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right to switch pages.