Selection

The DataGrid provides a selection functionality, which allows the user to select one or more rows and/or cells from the data displayed by the component.

Selection Modes

The DataGrid provides the following selection modes, which allow you to manipulate the type of selection. To control the modes, use the SelectionMode property, which accepts the following values:

• (Default) Single—A single unit may be selected.
• Multiple—Multiple units can be selected.
• Extended—Items are added to the selection only by combining the mouse clicks with the Ctrl or Shift keys.
• None—No selection is allowed.

Selection Units

The DataGrid also provides three selection units, which allow you to manipulate what units are selected when you interact with the grid. To control the selection units, set the SelectionUnit property, which accepts the following values:

• (Default) Row—Clicking within the cells will select the whole row.
• Cell—The clicked cell is selected.

Selected Items

The DataGrid provides the following properties for getting the data behind the selected items:

• SelectedItem—A property of type object that gets or sets the currently selected item.

• SelectedItems—A property of type ObservableCollection<object> that gets an ObservableCollection of the currently selected items.

Depending on the SelectionUnit, the SelectedItem and SelectedItems properties will contain different objects. If the SelectionUnit is Cell, the properties will hold DataGridCellInfo objects, which carry information about the selected cell and the underlying data item. If the SelectionUnit is Row, the properties will hold the business object that represents that row.

Programmatic Selection

Besides the built-in selection functionality, you can use a programmatic approach to select the data in the DataGrid.

The component exposes the following methods for programmatic selection:

• SelectItem(object item)—Selects the provided data item and adds it in the SelectedItems collection.
• DeselectItem(object item)—Removes the selection for the provided data item and removes it from the SelectedItems collection.
• SelectCell(DataGridCellInfo item)—Selects the grid cell as defined by the provided cell information.
• DeselectCell(DataGridCellInfo item)—Removes the selection for the grid cell defined by the provided cell information.
• SelectAll()—Selects all the items as defined by the SelectionMode and SelectionUnit properties.
• DeselectAll()—Clears the current selected items as defined by the SelectionUnit properties.

Events

The DataGrid exposes the SelectionChanged event, which will be raised whenever the selection is changed. The event arguments provide information about the added and removed items.