You are using DataGridView in your .NET program and there are hundreds of confusing properties you can change in the designer. Here are notes on DataGridView properties made from my work with DataGridViews in Windows.
The first task in making your DataGridView functional and attractive is using the Visual Studio designer and setting properties. After you set these properties, you can usually just plug in your data easily.
In Visual Studio, first select the View -> Toolbox option, and then double-click on DataGridView as shown above. Next, right click on the box and select Properties. Here is a review of some of the options you can set. Some important options are bolded. Column properties are not included here.
MultiSelect Property (DataGridView)Accessibility options
These are important only depending on the target of your application. Accessibility
is very difficult to get right.
AlternatingRowsDefaultCellStyle
This allows you to use two different colors alternating in your DataGridView.
BackgroundColor
Set this to a symbolic color, such as Window or AppWorkspace,
for a configuration-dependent style.
BorderStyle
Has three options: None, FixedSingle and Fixed3D. For Vista-targeted
applications, FixedSingle looks good.
CellBorderStyle
Has several options, althrough I have found none of them really result in a
good appearance.
ColumnHeadersBorderStyle
This changes the appearance of the border on the column headers. As a reminder,
the column headers are the gray boxes at the top.
ColumnHeadersDefaultCellStyle
Allows you to specify a default cell style for the column headers. I have not
found this useful, as I usually just predefine columns.
ColumnHeadersHeight
Specify the height in pixels of the column headers row. This could rarely be
useful.
ColumnHeadersVisible
Set this to False if you don't want the headers to appear. This will
result in a simpler grid appearance. For most data-driven apps, however, the column
headers are very important.
Cursor
This functions the same as it does on other Windows Forms controls.
DefaultCellStyle
Click on the ellipsis on the right of this row in the Properties pane, and you
can change properties such as BackColor, Font, ForeColor,
SelectionBackColor, SelectionForeColor, as well as Alignment and
WrapMode. This lets you specify all aspects of the font and text layout.
EnableHeadersVisualStyle
You can try toggling this option but in my experience it almost always makes
the appearance look worse when it is set to False.
GridColor
Set this to a symbolic color enum, such as ControlDark, or
WindowText. These special color enums adapt to the user's system.
RightToLeft
This specifies the behavior of the DataGridView based on the user's localization.
Many languages in the world are RTL, not LTR, and depending on your market, this
could be critical. I have no experience in this area.
RowHeadersBorderStyle
Use this to specify the style of the row headers. As a reminder, the row headers
are the boxes on the left, which I hide in this tutorial.
RowHeadersDefaultCellStyle
Like ColumnHeadersDefaultCellStyle above, this allows you to specify
the text and alignment properties of the row headers.
RowHeadersVisible
Set this to False to hide the row headers.
RowsDefaultCellStyle
Here you can specify the default cell style for Rows collections. You
can access Rows on the DataGridView through the Rows property.
RowTemplate
I haven't used this. It would allow you to specify a "template" row that the
other rows copy.
ShowCellErrors
ShowCellToolTips
ShowEditingIcon
ShowRowErrors
These properties specify the errors and icons that are displayed on the cells.
These are useful for data entry applications, which aren't covered in this tutorial.
AllowUserToAddRows
AllowUserToDeleteRows
AllowUserToOrderColumns
AllowUserToResizeColumns
AllowUserToResizeRows
These properties let you set what the user is allowed to do. For example, you
can set AllowUserToAddRows to false, and the bottom empty cell will disappear.
This is because it no longer is needed.
ClipboardCopyMode
This lets you specify how Copy, Ctrl-C, is handled in your DataGridView.
You can set this to one of four values. The values are Disable, which prevents
all copying; and three more options with specific characteristics.
ColumnHeadersHeightSizeMode
You can specify whether you want the system to dynamically resize the height
of the headers here.
EditMode
Allows you to specify how the user can indicate she wants to start editing the
DataGridView. The tutorial here doesn't cover editing.
MultiSelect
Here you can indicate whether only one part is able to be selected at once.
Depending on the other properties set, this can apply to cells, rows, or columns.
ReadOnly
Set ReadOnly to true when you do not require any editing to take place.
This is for when the DataGridView is only used for viewing, not editing or
data entry.
RowHeadersWidthSizeMode
Row headers are the boxes on the left, and this option lets you change their
sizing mode. I haven't worked carefully with this property.
SelectionMode
SelectionMode is an important property that allows you to specify what
units are selected when you click on the DataGridView. The options include
FullRowSelect, CellSelect, FullColumnSelect, RowHeaderSelect,
and ColumnHeaderSelect.
VirtualMode
The word 'Virtual' when used in the DataGridView context refers to custom grid
management methods that you have developed. It applies both for data-management
and also painting.
Data -> DataBindings
DataMember
DataSource
In the tutorial here, we use the DataSource property to display the data
onto the screen. It allows you to completely avoid manipulating rows individually.
Layout -> AutoSizeColumnsMode
AutoSizeRowsMode
These two options let you specify less specific sizings modes for your DataGridView.
For DataGridViews where the exact layout isn't critical, these are very useful.
Misc. -> Columns
Very important for defining custom column rules. See Step 8 and its following
information for more details.
What properties to start with. First, you can expand and anchor the DataGridView so it fills your window. Often, you will want to hide the row headers in Appearance -> RowHeadersVisible. Sometimes you should change the SelectionMode.
The Column properties on DataGridView provide a template for you to format your data. You add the Column properties, which are independent of the data but style it when it is adapted.
Appearance -> DefaultCellStyle
You can change the default appearance of cells in the column. This lets you
specify BackColor, Font, ForeColor, SelectionBackColor,
and SelectionForeColor. Other important properties include Alignment,
Padding, and WrapMode. Additionally, you can specify Behavior.
HeaderText
This text appears in the header. We already assigned it in the initial Columns
dialog boxes.
ToolTipText
This allows you to specify some tool tip text. These are the little labels that
show under the mouse pointer.
Visible
Use this to completely hide this column. This is useful for when you want to
remove an entire column from the DataGridView that is in the database.
Behavior -> ContextMenuStrip
Assign this property to any ContextMenuStrip you have in your Windows
Forms program.
MaxInputLength
Specify the maximum number of characters to be inserted into this cell. This
can prevent overly large text from being inserted later.
ReadOnly
Use to prevent user edits entirely.
Resizable
You can specify whether each column could be resized, seperately.
SortMode
The type of sorting that is performed when the column header is clicked. There
are three options: NotSortable, Automatic, and Programmatic.
NotSortable specifies that the order will never be changed. Automatic
is adequate for most programs in my experience. Finally, Programmatic means
that you must sort the column manually in your C# code.
Data -> DataPropertyName
As seen above, this "links" the database column to your DataGridView.
Design -> ColumnType
There are several different options for column types. They are DataGridViewTextBoxColumn,
which is used for this tutorial. Others are DataGridViewButtonColumn, which
allows you to insert push buttons, DataGridViewCheckBoxColumn for check boxes,
DataGridViewComboBoxColumn, and DataGridViewImageColumn.
Layout -> AutoSizeMode
AutoSizeMode indicates that the column be resized to fit its contents
in a way determined by Microsoft. This reduces your control over layout.
DividerWidth
You can set how wide the dividers, meaning the lines between the columns, are
drawn.
FillWeight
Fill weight refers to the relative proportions allotted to this column. If you
have a really high fill weight, the column will have the most aggressive fill mode.
Frozen
Visual Studio says: "Indicates whether a column will move when the user scrolls
the DataGridView horizontally."
MinimumWidth
Sometimes it is useful to specify a column never shrink too much.
Width
How wide, in pixels, you want the column to be.
Start with Column properties. Here we note how you can start changing the columns in your DataGridView. You can set HeaderText, which indicates what text to substitute for the data column name from your SQL database. If your column name in the database is ColumnSam1, then set the DataPropertyName to "ColumnSam1" without the quotes.
There are more features to the DataGridView you can use. You can set alternating row colors. An example of this is in the DataGridView tutorial. It is really valuable to set Resizable, which adds an extra layer of polish because it prevents the program from getting in an unusable configuration.
In this article, we saw my notes on DataGridView as I studied MSDN and worked on several implementations of the control. There are more materials available that offer walkthroughs and other neat tips. This site has a DataGridView category.
Windows Forms