How do i control the formatting of a datagrid when i bind to an arraylist?

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load Dim al1 As New ArrayList() al1.Add("Apple") al1.Add("Orange") al1.Add("Bacon") 'Create a DataGridTableStyle set mappingname to table. Dim ts1 As New DataGridTableStyle() ts1.MappingName = "?" 'Step 2: Amount Dim column As New DataGridTextBoxColumn() column.MappingName = "?" column.HeaderText = "FOOOD" ts1.GridColumnStyles.Add(column) dg1.TableStyles.Add(ts1) dg1.DataSource = al1 End Sub

The good news: when you're bound to an ArrayList, it works like you're bound to anything else -- you can set the TableStyle's MappingName to the type name ("ArrayList"), and all the public properties of the type are available as columns.

The bad news: string isn't special cased: string has one public property, and it's Length.  If you don't set up TableStyles or ColumnStyles, that's what's available.  ColumnStyles and TableStyles let you hide properties that you'd normally see, but don't let you add new properties.

There are a couple easy workarounds here.  One is to create a DataTable that holds your items instead of an ArrayList.  The other is to create a class that holds your strings and exposes them as a public property:

Public Class StringWrapper
  Private MyValue As String

  Sub New(ByVal s As String)
    MyValue = s
  End Sub

  Public ReadOnly Property Value() As String
    Get
      Return MyValue
    End Get
  End Property
End Class

   -Scott

The good news: when you're bound to an ArrayList, it works like you're bound to anything else -- you can set the TableStyle's MappingName to the type name ("ArrayList"), and all the public properties of the type are available as columns.

The bad news: string isn't special cased: string has one public property, and it's Length.  If you don't set up TableStyles or ColumnStyles, that's what's available.  ColumnStyles and TableStyles let you hide properties that you'd normally see, but don't let you add new properties.

There are a couple easy workarounds here.  One is to create a DataTable that holds your items instead of an ArrayList.  The other is to create a class that holds your strings and exposes them as a public property:

Public Class StringWrapper
  Private MyValue As String

  Sub New(ByVal s As String)
    MyValue = s
  End Sub

  Public ReadOnly Property Value() As String
    Get
      Return MyValue
    End Get
  End Property
End Class

   -Scott