Expression Editor for WinForms is a control that enables creating and editing expressions at run-time, which can then be used to perform calculations and shaping data. Powered with Visual Studio-like IDE, Expression Editor offers smart code completion, syntax highlighting, and error reporting functionalities. It provides standard operators, constants, and functions to help perform aggregate, logical, mathematical, and conversion operations on data. This intuitive control can be easily integrated with other data management and visualization controls such as grids and charts, to aid analysis.

The control is composed of C1ExpressionEditor and C1ExpressionEditorPanel components. Both these components can also be used as stand-alone controls in integration with other supported controls. For example, C1ExpressionEditor component can be used as Excel-like formula bar in integration with FlexGrid to enter expressions.

The following topics help you get accustomed with the Expression Editor control, and explore its advanced capabilities.

Key Features

Expression Editor for WinForms offers numerous advanced features that help end users create and edit complex expressions. These are as follows:

• Smart Code Completion
  Expression Editor provides recommendation of possible methods in a list box based on what you typed so far. This helps in completing expressions quickly and reduces the chances of typing errors.
  
• Syntax Highlighting
  Expression Editor uses different colors to write functions, fields, and operators. This helps in differentiating these items and enhancing the readability of expressions, especially when the expressions span across multiple lines.
  
• Pre-defined Operators and Functions 
  Expression Editor provides a wide variety of operators and functions to perform aggregate, logical, date time, math, convert and text operations for the ease of users while working with expressions.
  
• Error Reporting
  Expression Editor validates the entered expression for error detection, immediately after user has finished entering the expression. If the expression syntax is incorrect, then error message is shown within the Editor.