Search datagridview on user keypress

Question

I'm trying to select the first row where the cell value starts with the same keychar the user pressed. That's the part that is giving me trouble.

Here's how I'm handling the event (updated with working solution):

private void dataGridView1_KeyPress(object sender, KeyPressEventArgs e)
{
    if (Char.IsLetter(e.KeyChar))
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < (dataGridView1.Rows.Count); i++)
        {
            if (dataGridView1.Rows[i].Cells["Name"].Value.ToString().StartsWith(e.KeyChar.ToString(), true, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture))
            {
                dataGridView1.Rows[i].Cells[0].Selected = true;
                return; // stop looping
            }
        }
    }
}

I'm sure it's something simple that I'm overlooking, but for the life of me can't figure out what it is.

EDIT

Updated the code with solution applied

Answer 1

Might be a case issue, is the Value in Cells["Name"] start with a capital letter? Try using ToUpper or ToLower on both; or you could try StartsWith(e.KeyChar, true) to ignoreCase. If you are trying to select the row, you'll want to do dataGridView1.Rows[i].Selected = true

Answer 2

if (Char.IsLetterOrDigit(e.KeyChar))
{
    foreach (DataGridViewRow dgvRow in myDgv.Rows)
    {
        if (dgvRow.Cells["ColumnName"].FormattedValue
            .ToString().StartsWith(e.KeyChar.ToString(), true, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture))
        {
            dgvRow.Selected = true;
            break;
        }
    }
}

If the DGV is set up to allow Multi-Select then you'd obviously want to deselect any existing selection.

Answer 3

The edited answer in the original question doesn't support jumping to the next letter if there are multiple instances of names starting with the same letter. Here is an edited answer which support this feature:

private void dataGridView1_KeyPress(object sender, KeyPressEventArgs e)
{
    if (Char.IsLetter(e.KeyChar))
    {
        int index = 0;
        // This works only if dataGridView1's SelectionMode property is set to FullRowSelect
        if (dataGridView1.SelectedRows.Count > 0 )
        {
            index = dataGridView1.SelectedRows[0].Index + 1
        }
        for (int i = index; i < (dataGridView1.Rows.Count + index); i++)
        {
            if (dataGridView1.Rows[i % dataGridView1.Rows.Count].Cells["Name"].Value.ToString().StartsWith(e.KeyChar.ToString(), true, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture))
            {
                foreach (var row in dataGridView1.Rows.Cast<DataGridViewRow>().Where(t => t.Selected))
                {
                    row.Selected = false;
                }
                dataGridView1.Rows[i % dataGridView1.Rows.Count].Cells[0].Selected = true;
                return; // stop looping
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

This is a VS2008 VB.NET DataGridView extension meant to do kind of what you are doing but using a TextBox for searching information (not designed with case in mind but could easily be added). This extension works so perhaps there is something that might be helpful. I did notice that your code selects a row using select where mine uses CurrentCell.

    <Runtime.CompilerServices.Extension()> _
Public Function PartSeek(ByVal GridView As DataGridView, ByVal ColumnName As String, ByVal Value As String, ByVal Part As Boolean) As Boolean
    Dim Located As Boolean = False

    If GridView.Columns.Contains(ColumnName) Then
        Dim SingleRow As DataGridViewRow
        If Part Then
            SingleRow = (From Rows In GridView.Rows.Cast(Of DataGridViewRow)() _
                         Where Rows.Cells(ColumnName).Value.ToString().Contains(Value)).FirstOrDefault
        Else
            SingleRow = (From Rows In GridView.Rows.Cast(Of DataGridViewRow)() _
                         Where Rows.Cells(ColumnName).Value.ToString() = Value).FirstOrDefault
        End If
        If Not IsNothing(SingleRow) Then
            If GridView.CurrentCell.RowIndex <> SingleRow.Index Then
                GridView.CurrentCell = GridView(0, SingleRow.Index)
            End If
            DirectCast(GridView.Parent, Form).ActiveControl = GridView
            Located = True
        End If
        Return Located
    Else
        Throw New Exception("Column '" & ColumnName & "' not contained in this DataGridView")
    End If

End Function

Answer 5

I use this in VB.NET. You can use http://www.developerfusion.com/tools/ to convert to C Sharp.

I wrote a method that will select row letter typed. The function is called in the KeysPress event handler of the DataGridView.

Method:

'user types letter in dgv, method will select the column starting with that letter if it exists or else next letter existing in dgv
Public Shared Sub GoToLetterTypedInDataGridView(ByVal dgv As DataGridView, ByVal columnName As String, ByVal columnPosition As Integer, ByVal letterTyped As Char)
    Try
        Dim dt As DataTable = dgv.DataSource
        Dim letter As Char = letterTyped
        Dim dv As DataView = New DataView(dt)
        Dim hasCount As Boolean = False

        While (Not hasCount)
            dv.Sort = columnName
            dv.RowFilter = columnName & " like '" & letter & "%'"
            If dv.Count > 0 Then
                hasCount = True
                Dim x As String = dv(0)(columnPosition).ToString()
                Dim bs As New BindingSource
                bs.DataSource = dt
                dgv.BindingContext(bs).Position = bs.Find(columnName, x)
                dgv.CurrentCell = dgv(0, bs.Position)
            Else
                If letter = "z" Then
                    letter = "a"
                ElseIf letter = "Z" Then
                    letter = "A"
                Else : letter = Chr(Asc(letter) + 1)
                End If
            End If
        End While
    Catch ex As Exception
        Dim stackframe As New Diagnostics.StackFrame(1)
        Throw New Exception("An error occurred in routine, '" & stackframe.GetMethod.ReflectedType.Name & "." & System.Reflection.MethodInfo.GetCurrentMethod.Name & "'." & Environment.NewLine & "  Message was: '" & ex.Message & "'")
    End Try
End Sub

Then to call:

Private Sub dgvNew_KeyPress(sender As Object, e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyPressEventArgs) Handles dgvNew.KeyPress
Try
    If dgvNew.RowCount > 0 Then
        GoToLetterTypedInDataGridView(dgvNew, "columnName", 0, e.KeyChar)
    End If
Catch ex As Exception
    Dim stackframe As New Diagnostics.StackFrame(1)
    Throw New Exception("An error occurred in routine, '" & stackframe.GetMethod.ReflectedType.Name & "." & System.Reflection.MethodInfo.GetCurrentMethod.Name & "'." & Environment.NewLine & "  Message was: '" & ex.Message & "'")
End Try

End Sub

Hope this helps! Amber