How to: Bind a Control to Data Created at Runtime

The following example demonstrates a way of binding an array of custom objects to the XtraGrid control.

Start by declaring a class to represent an individual record. The code below declares a class with ID, Name and Age public properties. These properties will be data source fields. Note that the ID property is declared as read-only. As a result, its associated column will also be read-only.

C#

public class Record {

   int id, age;

   string name;

   public Record(int id, string name, int age) {

      this.id = id;

      this.name = name;

      this.age = age;

   }

   public int ID { get { return id; } }

   public string Name {

      get { return name; }

      set { name = value; }

   }

   public int Age {

      get { return age; }

      set { age = value; }

   }

}

VB

Public Class Record

   Dim _id, _age As Integer 

   Dim _name As String 

   Public Sub New(ByVal id As Integer, ByVal name As String, ByVal age As Integer)

      Me._id = id

      Me._name = name

      Me._age = age

   End Sub 

   Public ReadOnly Property ID() As Integer 

      Get 

         Return _id

      End Get 

   End Property 

   Public Property Name() As String 

      Get 

         Return _name

      End Get 

      Set(ByVal Value As String)

         _name = Value

      End Set 

   End Property 

   Public Property Age() As Integer 

      Get 

         Return _age

      End Get 

      Set(ByVal Value As Integer)

         _age = Value

      End Set 

   End Property 

End Class 

Once the record class has been declared, the data source object can be filled with records. This example will use a BingingList<T> as the grid's data source.

The code below fills a BindingList<T> with records and assigns it to the grid's GridControl.DataSource property. By default, columns for all data source fields are created automatically.

C#

BindingList<Record> listDataSource = new BindingList<Record>();

listDataSource.Add(new Record(1, "Jane Parker", 19));

listDataSource.Add(new Record(2, "Joe Smith", 30));

listDataSource.Add(new Record(3, "Bill Quimby", 15));

listDataSource.Add(new Record(4, "Michael Simpson", 42));

gridControl1.DataSource = listDataSource;

VB

Dim listDataSource As New System.ComponentModel.BindingList(Of Record)

listDataSource.Add(New Record(1, "Jane Parker", 19))

listDataSource.Add(New Record(2, "Joe Smith", 30))

listDataSource.Add(New Record(3, "Bill Quimby", 15))

listDataSource.Add(New Record(4, "Michael Simpson", 42))

GridControl1.DataSource = listDataSource

 

The result of this code is shown below: