How can you easily reorder columns in LINQ to SQL designer?

Question

When designing LINQ classes using the LINQ to SQL designer I've sometimes needed to reorder the classes for the purposes of having the resultant columns in a DataGridView appear in a different order. Unfortunately this seems to be exceedingly difficult; you need to cut and paste properties about, or delete them and re-insert them manually.

I know you can reorder columns fairly easily in a DataGridView, however that would result in a lot of hardcoding and I want the designer to match up to the grid.

Does anyone know of any easier way of achieving this or is cutting/pasting the only available method?

I tried manually editing the .designer.cs file, but reordering properties there doesn't appear to do anything!

Edit: Just to make it clear - I want to reorder what's in the LINQ to SQL designer, not what's in the table. I haven't made an error in ordering requiring a reversion to the original table layout; rather I have a table which I want to possess a different ordering in Visual Studio than in SQL Server.

Answer 1

Using Linq-to-Sql, you can have columns in the DataGridView appear different than in the original table by:

1. In your Linq query, extract the columns that you want, in the order than you want, and store them in a var. Then the autogenerate columns should show them in that order in the DataGridView
2. Use Template columns in your DataGridView
3. Do not use drag-and-drop on the Linq-to-Sql design surface to create your entities. Rather, create them by hand and associate them with the database table using table and column properties

As far as I know, there is no drag-and-drop column reorder in the designer itself

Answer 2

Open the [DataClasses].dbml file in your favorite XML editor, and reorder the [Column] elements for the table. Save, and reopen (or reload) the designer in Visual studio. The order of the columns displayed in the designer will be fixed.

Answer 3

If you are in the scenario where you have reordered the columns in the database, and you now want to have this new order be reflected in the designer, I think that you have to delete the table from the designer and then put it in again. Or if you use SqlMetal to generate your Linq-to-Sql classes, rerun it on your database and use the newly generated file.