Is there more than one way of adding values to an autocomplete custom collection of a datagridview? I'm familiar with the technique that uses the EditingControlShowing event, but I have a datagridview where I only need to set the autocomplete values once at the point at which the form is displayed, and not every time this event occurs.

I think what I need to know is how to access the "control within a control" that the e.Control of the EditingControlShowing event arguments represents, when I don't have an 'e' to play with.

Hope this makes sense.

Hi P.S.,

You'd better still handle EditingControlShowing event to do the work. But you need to set that only once. Look at the following code.
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
private bool autoCompleteSet;

public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
autoCompleteSet = false;
dataGridView1.Columns.Add("Column1", "Column1");
dataGridView1.EditingControlShowing += new DataGridViewEditingControlShowingEventHandler(dataGridView1_EditingControlShowing);
}

void dataGridView1_EditingControlShowing(object sender, DataGridViewEditingControlShowingEventArgs e)
{
if (!autoCompleteSet)
{
TextBox txtBox = e.Control as TextBox;
if (txtBox != null)
{
txtBox.AutoCompleteMode = AutoCompleteMode.Suggest;
txtBox.AutoCompleteSource = AutoCompleteSource.CustomSource;
txtBox.AutoCompleteCustomSource.Add("abcde");
txtBox.AutoCompleteCustomSource.Add("abdce");
txtBox.AutoCompleteCustomSource.Add("bcade");
autoCompleteSet = true;
}
}
}
}

In the form, there is an autoCompleteSet member, it is set to false at first. When you edit the cell, autocomplete items will be added and autoCompleteSet member will be set to true. So the next time, it won't add these items again. I think this can be a good solution for you.

Sincerely,
Kira Qian

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Please mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark if they don't.

Dont you have an 'e' to play with by using CellEndEdit or something?

---

Kenneth

Can you explain how this would enable me to set the autocomplete values once only?

Hi P.S.,

You'd better still handle EditingControlShowing event to do the work. But you need to set that only once. Look at the following code.
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
private bool autoCompleteSet;

public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
autoCompleteSet = false;
dataGridView1.Columns.Add("Column1", "Column1");
dataGridView1.EditingControlShowing += new DataGridViewEditingControlShowingEventHandler(dataGridView1_EditingControlShowing);
}

void dataGridView1_EditingControlShowing(object sender, DataGridViewEditingControlShowingEventArgs e)
{
if (!autoCompleteSet)
{
TextBox txtBox = e.Control as TextBox;
if (txtBox != null)
{
txtBox.AutoCompleteMode = AutoCompleteMode.Suggest;
txtBox.AutoCompleteSource = AutoCompleteSource.CustomSource;
txtBox.AutoCompleteCustomSource.Add("abcde");
txtBox.AutoCompleteCustomSource.Add("abdce");
txtBox.AutoCompleteCustomSource.Add("bcade");
autoCompleteSet = true;
}
}
}
}

In the form, there is an autoCompleteSet member, it is set to false at first. When you edit the cell, autocomplete items will be added and autoCompleteSet member will be set to true. So the next time, it won't add these items again. I think this can be a good solution for you.

Sincerely,
Kira Qian

---

Please mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark if they don't.