In This Topic
True DBGrid for WinForms includes dozens of advanced data access, data presentation, and user interface features that enable developers to build intuitive, professional-looking applications:
- Extensive Design-time Support
Design-time features, including SmartTags and full-featured editors allow you to intuitively create grid applications with little or no coding. For details, see Design-Time Support.
- Multiple Data Views
Present data in the format that's most useful for you with GroupBy View and standard Microsoft Outlook-style grouping, Hierarchical Data Display, Form View, Inverted View, MultipleLines View, and MultipleLinesFixed View. See Data Display for more information.
- Horizontal and Vertical Splits
Excel-like splits let you split the grid horizontally, vertically, or both. Plus, you have control over how splits scroll, individually or together. For details, see How to Use Splits.
- Drop-Down Object Support
Include a variety of drop-down objects for data entry, including a multicolumn control (the C1TrueDBDropDown control), a combo box, and a multiline text editor. See Drop-Down Controls for more information. Third-party drop-down controls also supported.
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Multiple Export Options and Robust Print Options
Export your grid to multiple formats including Delimited Text, Excel (XLS and XLSX), PDF, HTML, RTF, and more! For details see Exporting Grid Data. Control printing fully with features such as zoom, fit in window, stop pagination, and print preview.
Note:
TrueDBGrid's export and printing features uses the
C1.Win.Printing NuGet package, which provides three libraries: C1.PrintDocument, C1.Win.PrintPreview and C1.Win.RibbonPreview. Each library provides a set of previewing controls or components. The
PrintDocument library provides the PrintDocument and MultiDocument components, the
PrintPreview library provides the PreviewOutlineView, PreviewPane, PreviewTextSearchPanel, Thumbnail, PrintPreviewControl and PrintPreviewDialog components, and
RibbonPreview provides the RibbonPreview and RibbonPreviewDialog components. Since C1Report is now obsolete, make sure that the references for C1Report libraries is replaced by individual library references in the C1.Win.Printing nuget.
- Office 2007 and 2010 Styling
True DBGrid for WinForms supports Visual Styles that mimic the styles available in Office 2007 and Office 2010. You can set the Visual Style easily though the VisualStyle property. For more information about available Visual Styles, see Visual Styles.
- Universal .NET Data Binding
True DBGrid for WinForms can bind to any .NET data source with little or no code, allowing you to create a fully-navigational database browser in seconds. See Data Binding for more information.
- Designed to Microsoft Specifications
True DBGrid for WinForms includes .NET objects designed according to Microsoft specifications so if you're familiar with the Microsoft .NET object and collection models, you'll have no problem using True DBGrid for WinForms.
- Enhanced Keyboard Navigation
With just one property setting, control the relative position of the next cell when end-users press the ENTER key. See Navigation and Scrolling for information.
- Rich Scrolling Capabilities
Easily track the location of the scroll bar in the grid, set the vertical scroll bar thumb to scroll records as moved, and provide an informational pop-up during scrolling. See Scroll Tracking and ScrollTips and Tutorial 22: Borders, Scroll Tracking, and Scroll Tips for more information.
- 2D and 3D Cell Display
Choose two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or a combination of the two to control cell appearance to your specifications. See Three-Dimensional vs. Flat Display for more information.
- Style Border Properties
Customize the appearance, size, color, and type of cell borders. See Borders and Dividing Lines for more information.
- Excel and Word-Like Styles
Use hierarchical style objects to customize the grid's appearance with font, color, picture, and formatting specifications.
- Alternating Row Colors
Add alternating row colors to the grid to enhance the readability of the grid's display. See Alternating Row Colors for more information.
- In-Cell Objects
Add a variety of in-cell objects for data display and editing in the grid, including bitmaps, command buttons, check boxes, and radio buttons. See In-Cell Buttons for more information.
- Automatic Data Translation
Automatically translate database values into alternate text or graphics without coding in the grid. For example, numeric codes can be rendered as words or even bitmaps. See Automatic Data Translation with ValueItems for details.
- Data-Sensitive Display
Apply different styles to individual cells depending upon their contents. For example, show negative numbers in red, or fields containing a particular substring in bold. See Applying Styles to Cells for more information.
- Input Masking
Assign input templates to columns in order to simplify the run-time data entry process and reduce end-user data entry errors. See Input Masking for details.
- Filter Bar
Implement custom end-user operations such as incremental search and record set filtering using the filter bar, a special data entry row below the column headers. See Filtering Data in DataSets for more information.
- Unbound Grids and Columns
Easily create an unbound grid – you can even add unbound columns to a bound grid. See Using Unbound Columns and Creating an Unbound Grid for details.
- Run-Time CellTips
Add context-sensitive help for end-users by using cell tips in the grid. See Context-Sensitive Help with CellTips for details.
- Fixed, Nonscrolling Columns
Create fixed, nonscrolling columns anywhere in the grid – create a fixed left or right-most column or even to fix a column in the middle of the grid. Creating fixed columns is also easy to do with splits. See Freezing Columns for more information.
- Excel-style Cell Selection
Choose not only any row or column, but also any range of cells. See Selection, Sorting, and Movement for more information.
- Automatic Column Sizing
Keep your data viewable by resizing columns proportionately whenever the grid is resized horizontally. See Sizing and Splitting for details.
- Merge Contiguous Like-valued Cells
Merge adjacent rows of like-valued data from a specified column into a noneditable cell, or display all cell values individually. See Data-Sensitive Cell Merging for more information.
- Simplify Data Entry
Reduce the number of keystrokes needed for drop-down selection with the AutoDropdown and AutoCompletion properties to simply end-user data entry.
- Extensive Object Model
The True DBGrid has two separate column objects to help simplify the sometimes daunting object model. The C1DataColumn object contains all of the properties related to data and data processing, while the C1DisplayColumn object contains all of the properties related to the column’s display. See Object Model for more information.
- And Much More…
Customizable ENTER key behavior, drop-down hierarchical grid, tag property for column objects, right to left support, and a wide variety of print enhancements.
See Also