While you can always use the FormatText event to map data values to descriptive display values, List for WinForms provides a way to translate data automatically without code. With the ValueItemCollection collection object, you can specify alternate text or even pictures to be displayed in place of the underlying data values.

This feature is ideally suited for displaying numeric codes or cryptic abbreviations in a form that makes sense to end users. For example, country codes can be rendered as proper names or even as pictures of their respective flags. The numbers 0, 1, and 2 may be displayed as Yes, No, and Maybe. Note that either the actual values (0, 1, 2) or the translated values (Yes, No, Maybe) may be displayed as radio buttons in a cell or in a drop-down combo box.