How to bind a Navigation Property (second level properties) in DataGridView using BindingSource?

Question

I have used two entity classes for binding values into DataGridView. One is Estimates and Companies.

Estimates has columns such as "Id, Estimate Number, Estimate Amount, CompanyId".
Companies has columns such as "Id, Company Name, Address"

I have created two BindingSource such as EstimateBindingSource and CompanyBindingSource.

CompanyBindingSource has DataSource as EstimateBindingSource and DataMember as Estimates
EstimateBindingSource has DataSource as Estimates entity Class and no DataMember defined.

I have bound the EstimateBindingSource into the DataGridView using grid DataSource.

Here, I need to show Estimate number, Estimate Amount and Company Name in DataGridView.. I have't able to achieve this.

Note: I do not do any code behind logic to do this.. Need to achieve this only using design.

The relation between Company and Estimate seems to be 1-N but your binding sources has been setup incorrectly. — Reza Aghaei, Apr 07 '16 at 12:29
So, Do you have any sample to achieve this kind of scenario? Please provide some example to do this.. — Balagurunathan Marimuthu, Apr 07 '16 at 12:43

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:53

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Options to show Second Level Properties in DataGridView

To show a sub property of your navigation property you can use either of these options:

Use a DataGridViewComboBox column and bind it to CompanyId and set it's DataSource to list of companies, and DisplayMember property to Name property of company and ValueMember to Id property of company.
Override ToString() method of Company class and return Name of company. Then show Company navigation property in grid.
Create a CompanyName property for your Estimate which returns its Company.Name value and show CompanyName in grid.
Using CellFormatting event of DataGridView and set e.Value to desired value (company name) you want to display in cell.
Shape your Estimates list using a Linq query or use a ViewModel and pass the result to data grid view.
Create a TypeDescriptor for your Estimate type to resolve second level properties. . To show a property of company instead of company id, you can use a DataGridViewComboBoxColumn.

Using ComboBox Column

Since you requested for a mechanism which uses designer without writing code I describe this option more. Here is settings you should perform:

EstimatesBindingSource should bind to a list of Estimates
The DataGridView should bind to EstimatesBindingSource
CompanyBindingSource is only used as data source of the combo box column and should be filled using a list of Companies
To show CompanyName in Estimates list, it's enough to use a DataGridViewComboBoxColumn and set it's DataSource to list of companies and set the DisplayMember to CompanyName and it's value member to Id. And bind it to CompanyId field of Estimate.

Also if your requirement is to don't show it as ComboBox, simply set DisplayStyle property of DataGridViewComboBoxColumn to Nothing. It removes dropdown style.

You also may find this post helpful:

Show Properties of a Navigation Property in DataGridView (Second Level Properties)

edited May 23 '17 at 11:53

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answered Apr 07 '16 at 12:50

Reza Aghaei

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Is it no possible way to show the company name in datagridview text box column? – Balagurunathan Marimuthu Apr 07 '16 at 12:53
let me try with this answer you have posted – Balagurunathan Marimuthu Apr 07 '16 at 12:54
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To show it in `TextBoxColumn` you should follow creating `CompanyName` property for your `Estimate` type. Or follow `TypeDescriptor` solution .Or follow `CellFormatting` event. – Reza Aghaei Apr 07 '16 at 12:58
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Also if your requirement is to don't show it as `ComboBox`, simply set `DisplayStyle` property of `DataGridViewComboBoxColumn` to `Nothing`. It removes dropdown style. – Reza Aghaei Apr 07 '16 at 12:59
Hi Reza, i have added all the above in DataGridViewComboBox column, but i need to show the company name which associated with estimate. How may i map the estimate's company name for all the row. You have mentioned as "And bind it to CompanyId field of Estimate." Could you please give some screenshot to clarify this? – Balagurunathan Marimuthu Apr 08 '16 at 11:57
The post is the most complete answer which you can find in this subject. It contains all you need. What problem do you faced when applying the solutions. Which solution do you used? – Reza Aghaei Apr 08 '16 at 11:58
still i can get empty value for company column – Balagurunathan Marimuthu Apr 08 '16 at 12:00
You didn't say which option you used? – Reza Aghaei Apr 08 '16 at 12:01
Using ComboBox Column – Balagurunathan Marimuthu Apr 08 '16 at 12:03
Also is it correct? Estimate has a CompanyId field. So each Estimate has a Company. – Reza Aghaei Apr 08 '16 at 12:03
i have added the screen shot here. Please check – Balagurunathan Marimuthu Apr 08 '16 at 12:19
I saw your screenshot. I think you are setting up combo box incorrectly. You didn't answered my last question :) is it correct? Estimate has a CompanyId field? – Reza Aghaei Apr 08 '16 at 12:21
I suppose Estimate has a CompanyId and a Company has and Id and a Name. So to add a combo box column, you should set the `DataSource` of the column to CompanyBindingSource, also set `DataPropertyName` to `CompanyId`, `ValueMember` to `Id`, `DisplayMameber` to `Name`. – Reza Aghaei Apr 08 '16 at 12:24
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This way, it means you want to show `CompanyId` field of `Estimate` as a `ComboBox` and when the combo box wants to show a name for the field, It shows `Name` of a company that it's `Id` is equal to `CompanyId` of the Estimate. This is the way that ComboBox works. – Reza Aghaei Apr 08 '16 at 12:26
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Then you can set the `DisplayStyle` of it to `Nothing` to don't show DropDown button and if you don't want to let the user change the value, set `ReadOnly` of column to `true`. – Reza Aghaei Apr 08 '16 at 12:28
Hi, Thanks Reza. It's working as i expected.. Thanks for giving valuable response from your side. – Balagurunathan Marimuthu Apr 08 '16 at 12:28
I removed the picture, we don't need the picture anymore. – Reza Aghaei Apr 10 '16 at 10:00

How to bind a Navigation Property (second level properties) in DataGridView using BindingSource?

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