CoreSuite.Extensions.Windows 1.0.0

CoreSuite.Extensions.Windows

Windows Forms extensions for converting collections to tables and populating DataGridView controls.

Overview

CoreSuite.Extensions.Windows converts object and dictionary collections to DataTable instances and provides a convenient method for filling a Windows Forms DataGridView. Object conversion supports property exclusion through IgnoreInToTableAttribute, while grid population can preserve the selected row, scroll position and sort direction and can optionally display an order column.

This package is intended for .NET 8 Windows Forms applications. General-purpose string utilities remain in the separate CoreSuite.Extensions package.

Features

• Converts object collections to DataTable instances through public properties.
• Converts dictionary collections to tables using dictionary keys as columns.
• Excludes selected model properties through IgnoreInToTableAttribute.
• Represents Lazy(Of T) properties without evaluating their values.
• Populates an existing DataGridView from any supported collection.
• Optionally preserves the selected row and first displayed row.
• Optionally reapplies the current grid sort.
• Optionally inserts a one-based Order column as the first column.
• Includes English XML documentation for the public API.
• Requires no third-party packages.

Requirements

• .NET 8 for Windows (net8.0-windows)
• Windows Forms
• CoreSuite.Helpers

The NuGet dependency on CoreSuite.Helpers is resolved automatically when the package is installed.

Installation

Install the package from NuGet:

dotnet add package CoreSuite.Extensions.Windows

Or use the Visual Studio NuGet Package Manager and search for:

CoreSuite.Extensions.Windows

Namespaces

The extension methods and the exclusion attribute use these namespaces:

Imports CoreSuite.Extensions
Imports CoreSuite.Extensions.Extensions

Quick start

Imports System.Data
Imports CoreSuite.Extensions.Extensions

Dim Customers As New List(Of Customer) From {
    New Customer With {.Id = 1, .Name = "Ana"},
    New Customer With {.Id = 2, .Name = "Bruno"}
}
Dim CustomerTable As DataTable = Customers.ToTable()
DataGridView1.Fill(Customers)

API reference

Collection extensions

DataGridView extension

Attribute

Convert an object collection to a DataTable

Each public property of the collection item type becomes a DataColumn, and each item becomes a DataRow.

Imports System.Data
Imports CoreSuite.Extensions.Extensions

Dim Products As New List(Of Product) From {
    New Product With {.Id = 1, .Name = "Keyboard", .Price = 120D},
    New Product With {.Id = 2, .Name = "Mouse", .Price = 80D}
}
Dim ProductTable As DataTable = Products.ToTable()

Properties of type Lazy(Of T) are represented by text in the form Lazy<TypeName> and are not evaluated.

Ignore a property

Apply IgnoreInToTableAttribute to a model property that must not become a table column:

Imports CoreSuite.Extensions

Public Class Customer
    Public Property Id As Integer
    Public Property Name As String
    <IgnoreInToTable>
    Public Property InternalNotes As String
End Class

The attribute is useful for calculated values, complex objects, internal references or any other property that should not appear in the resulting DataTable.

Convert dictionaries to a DataTable

Every distinct key found across the dictionaries becomes a column. A missing or Nothing value is stored as DBNull.Value.

Imports System.Data
Imports CoreSuite.Extensions.Extensions

Dim Rows As New List(Of Dictionary(Of String, Object)) From {
    New Dictionary(Of String, Object) From {{"Id", 1}, {"Name", "Ana"}},
    New Dictionary(Of String, Object) From {{"Id", 2}, {"Name", "Bruno"}, {"Active", True}}
}
Dim Table As DataTable = Rows.ToTable()

Column names are collected case-insensitively. The dictionary collection overload returns Nothing when its source is Nothing.

Fill a DataGridView

Imports CoreSuite.Extensions.Extensions

DataGridView1.Fill(
    Products,
    KeepSelection:=True,
    KeepSort:=True,
    ShowOrder:=True)

Parameters

Fill replaces the grid's current DataSource with the generated DataTable.

Important behavior

• Object conversion reads public properties through reflection, so ordinary property getters are executed.
• A string is not treated as a collection of items and causes InvalidOperationException in the object collection overload.
• The non-generic object collection must not be Nothing.
• A model property named Order conflicts with the optional order column. Set ShowOrder:=False when the source already contains that column name.
• Selection is preserved only when the grid has exactly one selected row before it is filled.
• Grid sorting depends on the generated columns supporting the previous sort operation.
• IgnoreInToTableAttribute affects object conversion only; dictionary keys are not filtered by the attribute.

Package information

License

This package is distributed under the MIT License defined by the CoreSuite repository.