In Depth ASP.NET using ADO.NET

Adding CheckBox Control to DataGrid Control

Both for standalone applications and for web-based applications, accessing data has become a major programming task for modern software programming. Microsoft's ADO.NET technology has a solution for many of the problems associated with data access. DataGrid control holds an important status among the important parts of ADO.NET. We will find a section below on DataGrid and other related classes and how the user can play with them. The versatile DataGrid control displays tabular data and supports selecting, sorting, and editing the data. Each data field is displayed in a separate column in the order it is stored in the database.

//include all the required namespaces
using System; 
using System.Drawing; 
using System.Collections; 
using System.ComponentModel; 
using System.Windows.Forms; 
using System.Data; 
using System.Text; 
using System.Xml; 
     
namespace Test 
{
    public class TestDataGrid : System.Windows.Forms
    {
        /// <summary>       
        /// Required designer variable.   
        /// </summary>   
        private System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox cmbFunctionArea;   
        private DataTable                  dtblFunctionalArea;   
        private DataGrid                  dgdFunctionArea;
        /// <summary>     
        /// public constructor
        /// </summary> 
        public frmInitialShortListing()     
        { 
            //automatically generated by the VS Designer 
            //creates the object of the above designer variables     
            InitializeComponent();   
            PopulateGrid();   
        }
        private void PopulateGrid()
        {
            //Declare and initialize local variables used   
            DataColumn dtCol = null;//Data Column variable   
            string[]  arrstrFunctionalArea = null;//string array variable   
            System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox cmbFunctionArea;    //combo box var               
            DataTable dtblFunctionalArea;//Data Table var       
            //Create the combo box object and set its properties   
            cmbFunctionArea    = new ComboBox();   
            cmbFunctionArea.Cursor= System.Windows.Forms.Cursors.Arrow;
            cmbFunctionArea.DropDownStyle=
                System.Windows.Forms.ComboBoxStyle.DropDownList;   
            cmbFunctionArea.Dock    = DockStyle.Fill;   
            // Event that will be fired when selected index in the combo box is
            // changed
            cmbFunctionArea.SelectionChangeCommitted += new  EventHandlercmbFunctionArea_SelectedIndexChanged);   
            //Create the String array object, initialize the array with the column   
            //names to be displayed   
            arrstrFunctionalArea        = new string [3];   
            arrstrFunctionalArea[0]        = "Functional Area";   
            arrstrFunctionalArea[1]        = "Min";   
            arrstrFunctionalArea[2]        = "Max";   
            //Create the Data Table object which will then be used to hold   
            //columns and rows   
            dtblFunctionalArea        = new DataTable ("FunctionArea");   
            //Add the string array of columns to the DataColumn object           
            for(int i=0; i< 3;i++)   
            {           
                string str        = arrstrFunctionalArea[i];       
                dtCol            = new DataColumn(str);       
                dtCol.DataType        = System.Type.GetType("System.String");       
                dtCol.DefaultValue      = "";       
                dtblFunctionalArea.Columns.Add(dtCol);               
            }   
            //Add a Column with checkbox at last in the Grid   
            DataColumn dtcCheck    = new DataColumn("IsMandatory");//create the data         
            //column object with the name
            dtcCheck.DataType      = System.Type.GetType("System.Boolean");//Set its
            //data Type   
            dtcCheck.DefaultValue  = false;//Set the default value
            dtblFunctionalArea.Columns.Add(dtcCheck);//Add the above column to the
            //Data Table
            //Set the Data Grid Source as the Data Table createed above   
            dgdFunctionArea.DataSource    = dtblFunctionalArea; 
            // set style property when first time the grid loads, next time onwards // it will maintain its property   
            if(!dgdFunctionArea.TableStyles.Contains("FunctionArea"))   
            {       
                //Create a DataGridTableStyle object           
                DataGridTableStyle dgdtblStyle    = new DataGridTableStyle();       
                //Set its properties
                dgdtblStyle.MappingName        = dtblFunctionalArea.TableName;//its table name of dataset       
                dgdFunctionArea.TableStyles.Add(dgdtblStyle);       
                dgdtblStyle.RowHeadersVisible        = false;       
                dgdtblStyle.HeaderBackColor        = Color.LightSteelBlue;       
                dgdtblStyle.AllowSorting        = false;       
                dgdtblStyle.HeaderBackColor        = Color.FromArgb(8,36,107);       
                dgdtblStyle.RowHeadersVisible        = false;       
                dgdtblStyle.HeaderForeColor        = Color.White;   
                dgdtblStyle.HeaderFont            = new System.Drawing.Font("Microsoft Sans Serif", 9F, 
                    System.Drawing.FontStyle.Bold,
                    System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point, ((System.Byte)(0)));       
                dgdtblStyle.GridLineColor        = Color.DarkGray;       
                dgdtblStyle.PreferredRowHeight        = 22;       
                dgdFunctionArea.BackgroundColor        = Color.White; 
                //Take the columns in a GridColumnStylesCollection object and set //the // size of the individual columns           
                GridColumnStylesCollection    colStyle;
                colStyle            = dgdFunctionArea.TableStyles[0].GridColumnStyles;       
                colStyle[0].Width          = 100;       
                colStyle[1].Width        = 50;       
                colStyle[2].Width        = 50;       
                colStyle[3].Width        = 80;
            }
            // To add the combo box dynamically to the data grid, you have to take
            // the Text Box that is present (by default) in the column where u want // to add this combo box (here it is first column i.e. Functional
            // Area).From the tablestyles of the data grid take the grid column
            // styles of the column where you want to add the combo box 
            // respectively.
            DataGridTextBoxColumn dgtb    =    (DataGridTextBoxColumn)dgdFunctionArea.TableStyles[0].GridColumnStyles[0];
            //Add the combo box to the text box taken in the above step   
            dgtb.TextBox.Controls.Add (cmbFunctionArea);       
            //Note:-After these add the code to fill the details in the grid by
            //establishing    connection to the server and writing necessary steps: 
        }
    }//end of the class
}//end of the namespace

The combo box control was added to the Functional Area Column (for each Row) dynamically.

//call this below method after initialize component 
private void PopulateShortlistGrid()     
{       
    DataColumn        dtcShortlist;
    //Combo box control added as discussed above   
    cmbWorkflow            = new ComboBox();
    cmbWorkflow.Cursor        = System.Windows.Forms.Cursors.Arrow;
    cmbWorkflow.DropDownStyle    = System.Windows.Forms.ComboBoxStyle.DropDownList; 
    cmbWorkflow.Dock            = DockStyle.Fill; 
    dtbShortlist            = new DataTable("ShortList"); 
    string strColumnName        = null;
    string []arraystringSearch        = null; 
    arraystringSearch            = new string[4]; 
    arraystringSearch[1]            = "Candidate Code"; 
    arraystringSearch[2]            = "Candidate Name";
    arraystringSearch[3]            = "Workflow";       
    //Adding a check box control in the first column of the data grid   
    //create a Data Column object with Column Name as “Select”   
    DataColumn    dtcolCheck        = new DataColumn("Select"); 
    //Set the data type of the checkbox i.e. to Boolean 
    dtcolCheck.DataType            = System.Type.GetType("System.Boolean"); 
    //Set its default value as false 
    dtcolCheck.DefaultValue        = false; 
    //add the above check box column to the data table 
    dtbShortlist.Columns.Add(dtcolCheck); 
    //Also add the other three columns i.e. Candidate Code, Candidate //Name and Workflow respectively 
    for(int intI=1; intI< 4;intI++) 
    {               
        strColumnName    = arraystringSearch[intI];
        dtcolShortlist    = new DataColumn(strColumnName);
        dtcolShortlist.DataType    = System.Type.GetType("System.String");                   
        dtbShortlist.Columns.Add(dtcolShortlist);
    } 
    dgdShortList.DataSource    = dtbShortlist;       
}

Focusing a particular cell in the DataGrid

We have to focus on the TextBox Control that is present in each cell of the DataGrid created above to focus a particular cell in the grid created above. Follow the steps followed below to take the text box present in the grid cell which we want to focus:

//Bring the focus to the grid in which the cell is present (where you
want //the focus)
dgdLoad.Focus(); 
//Create a DataGrid Cell object and take the Cell by passing Row and //Column number respectively
DataGridCell dgcell = new DataGridCell(1,1); //here it is 2ndrow, 2nd Column 
//Make the current cell of the grid as the cell you have taken above
//the cell where you need the focus to be
dgdLoad.CurrentCell = dgcell;
//To take the text Box of the cell where u want the focus to be take
//it from the Table Styles of the grid and in that the column style
//by passing the column number where youu wants the focus to be 
DataGridTextBoxColumn dgtb = (DataGridTextBoxColumn)dgdLoad.TableStyles[0].GridColumnStyles[2];
//Focus on the text box i.e. in turn on cell where u need the focus   
dgtb.TextBox.Focus();

You might also like...

Comments

About the author

John Godel United States

John H. GODEL has an experience more than 22 years in the area of software development. He is a software engineer and architect. His interests include object-oriented and distributed computin...

Interested in writing for us? Find out more.

Contribute

Why not write for us? Or you could submit an event or a user group in your area. Alternatively just tell us what you think!

Our tools

We've got automatic conversion tools to convert C# to VB.NET, VB.NET to C#. Also you can compress javascript and compress css and generate sql connection strings.

“You can stand on the shoulders of giants OR a big enough pile of dwarfs, works either way.”