WinForms Data Grid - Create custom columns

This example demonstrates how to create a custom grid column.

Create a GridColumn descendant class. If you add properties to a custom column and want to serialize them (using the SaveLayoutTo... method), apply the XtraSerializableProperty attribute.

public class MyGridColumn : GridColumn {
    public MyGridColumn() { }
    string customDataValue = string.Empty;

    [XtraSerializableProperty()]
    public string CustomData {
        get { return customDataValue; }
        set { customDataValue = value; }
    }
    protected override void Assign(GridColumn column) {
        base.Assign(column);
        if(column is MyGridColumn) {
            this.CustomData = ((MyGridColumn)column).CustomData;
        }
    }
}

Create a descendant from the GridColumnCollection class and override the CreateColumn method to instantiate a custom column:

public class MyGridColumnCollection : GridColumnCollection {
    public MyGridColumnCollection(ColumnView view) : base(view) { }
    protected override GridColumn CreateColumn() {
        return new MyGridColumn();
    }
}

Create a descendant from the GridView class and override the CreateColumnCollection method to instantiate your column collection:

public class MyGridView : DevExpress.XtraGrid.Views.Grid.GridView {
  public MyGridView() : this(null) {}
  public MyGridView(DevExpress.XtraGrid.GridControl grid) : base(grid) {
    // Your initialization code.
  }
  protected override string ViewName { get { return "MyGridView"; } }
  protected override GridColumnCollection CreateColumnCollection() {
    return new MyGridColumnCollection(this);
  }
}

Files to Review

• Form1.cs (VB: Form1.vb)
• MyGridColumn.cs (VB: MyGridColumn.vb)
• MyGridControl.cs (VB: MyGridControl.vb)
• MyGridHandler.cs (VB: MyGridHandler.vb)
• MyGridRegistration.cs (VB: MyGridRegistration.vb)
• MyGridView.cs (VB: MyGridView.vb)
• MyGridViewInfo.cs (VB: MyGridViewInfo.vb)