c# - How do I bind a DataGridViewComboBoxColumn to the list property of the parent row's bound object? -

given following classes:

public class shirt {     public string description { get; set; }     public list<color> coloroptions { get; set; }     public int selectedcolorid { get; set; } }  public class color {     public int id { get; set; }     public string label { get; set; } } 

why can't combobox show in datagridview using following code?

        list<shirt> foundshirts = _dbshirtrepo.getshirts();          var namecolumn = new datagridviewtextboxcolumn();         namecolumn.datapropertyname = "description";         namecolumn.headertext = "description";          var colorselectcolumn = new datagridviewcomboboxcolumn();         colorselectcolumn.datapropertyname = "coloroptions";         colorselectcolumn.displaymember = "label";         colorselectcolumn.valuemember = "id";           datagridview1.columns.add(namecolumn);         datagridview1.columns.add(colorselectcolumn);          datagridview1.datasource = foundshirts; 

try this:

private void datagridview1_cellclick(object sender, datagridviewcelleventargs e) {     if (e.columnindex == 1)     {         datagridviewcomboboxcell combo = this.datagridview1[1, e.rowindex] datagridviewcomboboxcell;         combo.datasource = ((shirt)datagridview1.rows[e.rowindex].databounditem).coloroptions;     } }  

as can see, have provide datasource per request because can have 1 @ time. there's no way pre-set different data sources each combo in each row.

you can improve above solution concept same:

• user clicks, hovers or otherwise "activates" cell
• set datasource of column's combo before user has chance open it

this way user not aware of shenanigans going on , can offer different choice every individual row.

note: i'm not 100% sure of how datagridviewcomboboxcell operates, it's entirely possible caches , persists data sources experiment bit before relying on it.