THE Multi Column ComboBox

[DraguVaso]

Hi,

The Multi column comboBox is a well spoken control, that a lot of people
desire, and a lot of people buildtheir own. I tested a lot of them, but none
really was what i wanted to have.
But does anybody knows where I can find the best Multi column combobox? One
that supports a lot of columns, possiblities to get the values in each
column for the selected item, adding a DataSource etc...
It should be free, and if possible with the source code (in VB.NET).

Thanks a lot in advance,

Pieter

[Cor Ligthert]

Re: THE Multi Column ComboBox

Pieter,

What is for you a multicolumn combobox. For me it sounds as more comboboxes
side by side in a group box. However probably you mean something else with
it?

Cor

[DraguVaso]

Re: THE Multi Column ComboBox

Hi Cor,

I mean:
1 combobox, but with in the dropdown-list more than 1 columns (and not 1
like there is on the normal combobox).

Pieter

"Cor Ligthert" <notmyfirstname @planet.nl> wrote in message
news:uXPsKNmcFH A.3048@TK2MSFTN GP12.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> Pieter,
>
> What is for you a multicolumn combobox. For me it sounds as more[/color]
comboboxes[color=blue]
> side by side in a group box. However probably you mean something else with
> it?
>
> Cor
>
>[/color]

[Cor Ligthert]

Re: THE Multi Column ComboBox

Pieter,

I still don't know what you mean, did you ever tried this, try it and tell
than what is good or wrong on it.

\\\needs 3 comboboxes side by side on a form and pasting in this code.
Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVa l sender _
As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArg s) Handles MyBase.Load
Dim dt As New DataTable
dt.Columns.Add( "a")
dt.Columns.Add( "b")
dt.Columns.Add( "c")
dt.LoadDataRow( New Object() {"Pieter", "Belgie", "Lambik"}, True)
dt.LoadDataRow( New Object() {"Cor", "Holland", "Heineken"} , True)
dt.LoadDataRow( New Object() {"Rinze", "Zeeland", "Stella"}, True)
dt.DefaultView. Sort = "b"
ComboBox1.DataS ource = dt
ComboBox1.Displ ayMember = "a"
ComboBox1.Value Member = "b"
ComboBox2.DataS ource = dt
ComboBox2.Displ ayMember = "b"
ComboBox2.Value Member = "c"
ComboBox3.DataS ource = dt
ComboBox3.Displ ayMember = "c"
ComboBox3.Value Member = "a"
End Sub
///
I hope this helps,

Cor

[DraguVaso]

Re: THE Multi Column ComboBox

Hehe no: you have more than one comboboxes.
Waht I need is only 1 (one, één, uno, eins) combobox :-)
With multiple (more than one, meerdere) columns in the dropdown-list :-)

Like you can see here:

http://www.vbaccelerator.com/home/NET/Code/Controls/ListBox_and_ComboBox/Icon_ComboBox/article.asp

or here:

http://www.codeproject.com/vb/net/multicolumncombo.asp

or here:

http://www.codeguru.com/Cpp/controls/combobox/multicolumncombos/article.php/c1829/

But none of these are really nice. So I'm looking for a real good solution.

And also for you Cor: how do YOU call these things? :-)


"Cor Ligthert" <notmyfirstname @planet.nl> wrote in message
news:u6rvXfmcFH A.2664@TK2MSFTN GP15.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> Pieter,
>
> I still don't know what you mean, did you ever tried this, try it and tell
> than what is good or wrong on it.
>
> \\\needs 3 comboboxes side by side on a form and pasting in this code.
> Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVa l sender _
> As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArg s) Handles MyBase.Load
> Dim dt As New DataTable
> dt.Columns.Add( "a")
> dt.Columns.Add( "b")
> dt.Columns.Add( "c")
> dt.LoadDataRow( New Object() {"Pieter", "Belgie", "Lambik"}, True)
> dt.LoadDataRow( New Object() {"Cor", "Holland", "Heineken"} , True)
> dt.LoadDataRow( New Object() {"Rinze", "Zeeland", "Stella"}, True)
> dt.DefaultView. Sort = "b"
> ComboBox1.DataS ource = dt
> ComboBox1.Displ ayMember = "a"
> ComboBox1.Value Member = "b"
> ComboBox2.DataS ource = dt
> ComboBox2.Displ ayMember = "b"
> ComboBox2.Value Member = "c"
> ComboBox3.DataS ource = dt
> ComboBox3.Displ ayMember = "c"
> ComboBox3.Value Member = "a"
> End Sub
> ///
> I hope this helps,
>
> Cor
>
>[/color]

[Cor Ligthert]

Re: THE Multi Column ComboBox

Pieter,
[color=blue]
> Hehe no: you have more than one comboboxes.
> Waht I need is only 1 (one, één, uno, eins) combobox :-)
> With multiple (more than one, meerdere) columns in the dropdown-list :-)
>[/color]

Do you mean a combobox where in you can say something as.

Datasource = mytable
Displaymembers are a, b, c
Valuemembers are x, y, z

And than it is displayed in one string row and returned in one string row,
ore do you want to have returned independent objects.

Cor

[DraguVaso]

Re: THE Multi Column ComboBox

I prefer independed objects. something like the .Item value most controls
have...
..Item(0).Text, .Item(1).Text, .Item(3).Text etc...

The best would be if you could thread the Datasource/DropDownList as a
DataTable, and the selected value as a DataRow...

"Cor Ligthert" <notmyfirstname @planet.nl> wrote in message
news:eMp4KDncFH A.3280@TK2MSFTN GP09.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> Pieter,
>[color=green]
> > Hehe no: you have more than one comboboxes.
> > Waht I need is only 1 (one, één, uno, eins) combobox :-)
> > With multiple (more than one, meerdere) columns in the dropdown-list :-)
> >[/color]
>
> Do you mean a combobox where in you can say something as.
>
> Datasource = mytable
> Displaymembers are a, b, c
> Valuemembers are x, y, z
>
> And than it is displayed in one string row and returned in one string row,
> ore do you want to have returned independent objects.
>
> Cor
>
>[/color]

[Cor Ligthert]

Re: THE Multi Column ComboBox

Pieter,
[color=blue]
>
> The best would be if you could thread the Datasource/DropDownList as a
> DataTable, and the selected value as a DataRow...
>[/color]
And what is than wrong with concatination the columns using an extra columns
in the datatable as often is showed here in these newsgroups. For the
valuemembers from the datarow the concurrencymana ger can of course be used.

(I know a reason however asking it to you)

:-)

Cor

[DraguVaso]

Re: THE Multi Column ComboBox

It's jsut ugly :-)
It won't be a nice presentation with columns, but just every time a line
with a lot af values next to each other, and absolutely not well-presented.

Actually: it's really the solution with the columns I need. and I jsut know
that there are a lot of them on the internet, but I jsut want to have the
opinion of the people who used them :)

"Cor Ligthert" <notmyfirstname @planet.nl> wrote in message
news:%23m6gZPnc FHA.1384@TK2MSF TNGP09.phx.gbl. ..[color=blue]
> Pieter,
>[color=green]
> >
> > The best would be if you could thread the Datasource/DropDownList as a
> > DataTable, and the selected value as a DataRow...
> >[/color]
> And what is than wrong with concatination the columns using an extra[/color]
columns[color=blue]
> in the datatable as often is showed here in these newsgroups. For the
> valuemembers from the datarow the concurrencymana ger can of course be[/color]
used.[color=blue]
>
> (I know a reason however asking it to you)
>
> :-)
>
> Cor
>
>[/color]

[Marina]

Re: THE Multi Column ComboBox

I don't know about free ones - the quality/support there may not bee too
reliable. There are definitely vendors out there that sell controls like
this (e.g. Infragistics).

If spending money is not an option, then you can contenate fields together
as was suggested in other thread. You can pad each columns to a set # of
characters, so the text in each column lines up. This should work if a fixed
width font is being used.

"DraguVaso" <pietercoucke@h otmail.com> wrote in message
news:eRyN8JmcFH A.2664@TK2MSFTN GP15.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> Hi,
>
> The Multi column comboBox is a well spoken control, that a lot of people
> desire, and a lot of people buildtheir own. I tested a lot of them, but
> none
> really was what i wanted to have.
> But does anybody knows where I can find the best Multi column combobox?
> One
> that supports a lot of columns, possiblities to get the values in each
> column for the selected item, adding a DataSource etc...
> It should be free, and if possible with the source code (in VB.NET).
>
> Thanks a lot in advance,
>
> Pieter
>
>[/color]

[Peter D. Dunlap]

Re: THE Multi Column ComboBox

On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 15:19:11 +0200, "DraguVaso"
<pietercoucke@h otmail.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>It's jsut ugly :-)
>It won't be a nice presentation with columns, but just every time a line
>with a lot af values next to each other, and absolutely not well-presented.
>
>Actually: it's really the solution with the columns I need. and I jsut know
>that there are a lot of them on the internet, but I jsut want to have the
>opinion of the people who used them :)
>[/color]
Sounds like what you want is a ComboBox where the dropdown displays a
DataGrid or a ListView in detail mode, no?

I don't know of any free ones that do this, though I haven't looked
for one. SyncFusion has a package with that in it, but that is
*definitely* not free!

[Jim Rand]

Re: THE Multi Column ComboBox

Take a look at http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/WFSubscription/

I'm slowly working my way through it. The set of controls that ships with
VS-2003 is pretty lame.

Think of a grid with a combo box - what a concept. And yes, it does do
multi-column data lookup combo boxes.

Jim

"Peter D. Dunlap" <pdunlap@NOSPAM fcsg.com> wrote in message
news:mep3b192rp 0c0r4k4klvag7tk 5okp0n9ai@4ax.c om...[color=blue]
> On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 15:19:11 +0200, "DraguVaso"
> <pietercoucke@h otmail.com> wrote:
>[color=green]
> >It's jsut ugly :-)
> >It won't be a nice presentation with columns, but just every time a line
> >with a lot af values next to each other, and absolutely not[/color][/color]
well-presented.[color=blue][color=green]
> >
> >Actually: it's really the solution with the columns I need. and I jsut[/color][/color]
know[color=blue][color=green]
> >that there are a lot of them on the internet, but I jsut want to have the
> >opinion of the people who used them :)
> >[/color]
> Sounds like what you want is a ComboBox where the dropdown displays a
> DataGrid or a ListView in detail mode, no?
>
> I don't know of any free ones that do this, though I haven't looked
> for one. SyncFusion has a package with that in it, but that is
> *definitely* not free!
>[/color]

[Cor Ligthert]

Re: THE Multi Column ComboBox

Pieter,

That was I expecting. So what you need is a single column datatbox with a
tab seperator in the text part of it. The nicest is when the seperator is
visible as a |.

Right?

Cor

[Cor Ligthert]

Re: THE Multi Column ComboBox

combobox of course.

[DraguVaso]

Re: THE Multi Column ComboBox

Yes but is still ugly :)
and if you do it like this you have to calculate the ith of the text to have
everything nice set :)

Not like this :-)
Pieter | Belgium | Maes
Cor | Netherlans | Heineken



"Cor Ligthert" <notmyfirstname @planet.nl> wrote in message
news:O6MWrDwcFH A.3616@TK2MSFTN GP09.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> combobox of course.
>
>[/color]