Binding Data to Controls

Binding Data to Controls

Simple data binding is the ability to bind a control to a single data element. When you need to display and manipulate more than one data element at a time,then this is called complex data binding.Complex data binding is the ability to bind a control to more than one data element and more than one record in a database.

Class Hierarchies Relevant to Data Binding

//Text box controls—Used to display, or accept as input, a single line of text. Can also support multilines. System.Windows.Forms.TextBox class System.Windows.Forms.DataGridTextBox subclass System.Web.UI.WebControls.Textbox class //List controls—Enable you to display a list of items to the user that the user can select by clicking. System.Windows.Forms.ListControl class System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox subclass System.Windows.Forms.ListBox subclass System.Web.UI.WebControls.ListControls class System.Web.UI.WebControls.CheckBoxList subclass System.Web.UI.WebControls.DropDownList subclass System.Web.UI.WebControls.ListBox subclass System.Web.UI.WebControls.RadioButtonList subclass //DataGrid controls—Used to display data in a scrollable, tabular grid. System.Windows.Forms.DataGrid class System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataGrid class

Methods Binding

For ListBox controls, you can bind the control to aDataSet class using the DataSource and DisplayMemberproperties as you have seen in our Windows Forms example:

ListBox1.DataSource = customer
ListBox1.DisplayMember = "Customers.CompanyName"

Or, you can use the DataBinding method programmatically to achieve the same results.

ListBox1.DataBindings.Add(New System.Windows.Forms.Binding
("SelectedItem", customer, "Customers.CompanyName"))

For DataGrid controls, you bind the control to a DataSetclass using the DataSource and DataMember properties:

DataGrid1.DataMember = "Customers.CustomersOrders"
DataGrid1.DataSource = customer

Or, use the SetDataBinding method programmatically to achieve the same results:

DataGrid1.SetDataBinding(customer,"Customers.CustomersOrders")