A dataview is a .net class which represents a databindable, customized view of a DataTable for sorting, filtering, searching, editing, and navigation. The DataView does not store data, but instead represents a connected view of its corresponding DataTable. Changes to the DataView’s data will affect the DataTable. Changes to the DataTable’s data will affect all DataViews associated with it.
A DataView enables you to create different views of the data stored in a DataTable, a capability that is often used in data-binding applications. Using a DataView, you can expose the data in a table with different sort orders, and you can filter the data by row state or based on a filter expression.
A DataView provides a dynamic view of data in the underlying DataTable: the content, ordering, and membership reflect changes as they occur. This behavior differs from the Select method of the DataTable, which returns a DataRow array from a table based on a particular filter and/or sort order: thiscontent reflects changes to the underlying table, but its membership and ordering remain static. The dynamic capabilities of the DataView make it ideal for data-binding applications.
A DataView provides you with a dynamic view of a single set of data, much like a database view, to which you can apply different sorting and filtering criteria. Unlike a database view, however, a DataView cannot be treated as a table and cannot provide a view of joined tables. You also cannot exclude columns that exist in the source table, nor can you append columns, such as computational columns, that do not exist in the source table.
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