How to Filter a GridViewComboBoxColumn by DisplayMember

Environment

Product Version	Product	Author
2019.3.1022	RadGridView for WinForms	Desislava Yordanova

Description

By default, the filter options for the GridViewComboBoxColumn depends on the type of the specified ValueMember. Hence, if you set the ValueMember to be the unique numeric identifier of an object used in the DataSource collection, you will see filter options for numeric values in your case.

In addition, the column requires selecting a certain item from the drop down in order to filter the grid rows.

A common requirement is to filter by a sub-string and type only a part of the text without the necessity to select a certain item from the drop down.

Solution

In order to allow filtering by using a text box editor and filtering by the text that is displayed in the column, you need to set the GridViewComboBoxColumn.FilteringMode property to GridViewFilteringMode.DisplayMember and replace the default editor in the filter row with a RadTextBoxEditor in the RadGridView.EditorRequired event.

• C#
• VB.NET

public RadForm1()
{
    InitializeComponent();
    GridViewComboBoxColumn comboColumn = new GridViewComboBoxColumn("Combo");
    comboColumn.FilteringMode = GridViewFilteringMode.DisplayMember;
    comboColumn.AutoCompleteMode = AutoCompleteMode.Suggest;
    comboColumn.DropDownStyle = RadDropDownStyle.DropDown;
    comboColumn.DataSource = this.categoriesBindingSource;
    comboColumn.ValueMember = "CategoryID";
    comboColumn.DisplayMember = "CategoryName";
    comboColumn.FieldName = "CategoryID";
    this.radGridView1.Columns.Insert(0, comboColumn);

    this.radGridView1.BestFitColumns();
    this.radGridView1.EnableFiltering = true;

    this.radGridView1.EditorRequired += radGridView1_EditorRequired;
}

private void radGridView1_EditorRequired(object sender, EditorRequiredEventArgs e)
{
    if (this.radGridView1.CurrentColumn is GridViewComboBoxColumn && this.radGridView1.CurrentRow is GridViewFilteringRowInfo)
    {
        RadTextBoxEditor editor = new RadTextBoxEditor();
        e.Editor = editor;
    }
}

Public Sub New()
    InitializeComponent()
    Dim comboColumn As GridViewComboBoxColumn = New GridViewComboBoxColumn("Combo")
    comboColumn.FilteringMode = GridViewFilteringMode.DisplayMember
    comboColumn.AutoCompleteMode = AutoCompleteMode.Suggest
    comboColumn.DropDownStyle = RadDropDownStyle.DropDown
    comboColumn.DataSource = Me.categoriesBindingSource
    comboColumn.ValueMember = "CategoryID"
    comboColumn.DisplayMember = "CategoryName"
    comboColumn.FieldName = "CategoryID"
    Me.RadGridView1.Columns.Insert(0, comboColumn)
    Me.RadGridView1.BestFitColumns()
    Me.RadGridView1.EnableFiltering = True
    AddHandler Me.RadGridView1.EditorRequired, AddressOf radGridView1_EditorRequired
End Sub

Private Sub radGridView1_EditorRequired(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EditorRequiredEventArgs)
    If TypeOf Me.RadGridView1.CurrentColumn Is GridViewComboBoxColumn AndAlso _
        TypeOf Me.RadGridView1.CurrentRow Is GridViewFilteringRowInfo Then
        Dim editor As RadTextBoxEditor = New RadTextBoxEditor()
        e.Editor = editor
    End If
End Sub

As a result you will get the filter options valid for string types:

Text filter options

The dafult editor for the filtering row will be a pure text box:

Text editor for the filtering row