Recently I needed fo find a way for a user to be presented with a list of possible values, but to also be able to ignore that list and enter their own value into a datagrid cell. I figured I could just use a combo box column (dropdownlist) and it would behave the same way as a combobox does when it is on a form (not within a datagrid). In that situation the user can just enter a value into the text portion of the combo box assuming they did not like any of the options in the box itself. Well, that’s not the way a comboboxcolumn works… you choose from the list it makes available… that’s all you get for free.

Unfortunately, that was not an option. I had to allow the user to enter their own value if they didn’t see the one they wanted in the list. So, what I did was I set the column up as a regular Text based column. Then I implemented a pop-up menu that showed when the user right clicked on a cell in a particular column. Before popping up it determines what the correct menu items for cells in the columns in which it resides  and then makes those options available to the user. It took me a little while to figure out – hopefully this will save someone some time.

My sample code below is in VB. Basically it makes use of the fact that when in a datagrid a right click causes “CellContextMenuStripNeeded” to be fired. So we build up our menu strip there. You could ofcourse also have a static menustrip and set striptoShow directly to it rather than building up stripToShow everytime.

”””””””””””””””’ SET UP SOME PRIVATE VARIABLES WE WILL NEED ””””””””””””””’

 Private theCellImHoveringOver As DataGridViewCellEventArgs
Private stripToShow As ContextMenuStrip

 ”””””””””””””””’ DETERMINE WHICH POPUP TO SHOW (IF ANY) ””””””””””””””’

‘NOTE: dgv is a DataGridView

Private Sub dgv_CellContextMenuStripNeeded(ByVal sender As Object,
ByVal e As DataGridViewCellContextMenuStripNeededEventArgs) _�
Handles dgv.CellContextMenuStripNeeded

 Try

      If (theCellImHoveringOver .ColumnIndex = -1) Then
          Return ‘ nothing special to pop up here
     End If

     If (dgv.Columns(theCellImHoveringOver.ColumnIndex).Name = “Column_Name_Here”) Then
          If (dgv.Rows(theCellImHoveringOver.RowIndex).Cells(“Column_Name_Here”).Selected) Then   �
               ‘ NOTE: I only want it to do this if the cell i right click on is SELECTED
               If stripToShow Is Nothing Then
                      stripToShow = New ContextMenuStrip()�
                      stripToShow .Items.Add(“Item1”, Nothing, New System.EventHandler(AddressOf Me.stripToShow _Item_Click))
                      stripToShow .Items.Add(“Item2”, Nothing, New System.EventHandler(AddressOf Me.stripToShow _Item_Click))
                      ‘NOTE: I added a handler for the click. In my handler I will set the cell value to whatever the user selects from the menu
               End If
               e.ContextMenuStrip = stripToShow�
          End If
     End If

Catch ex As Exception
        MessageBox.Show(“There was an error popping up the menu. Please try again.”)
End Try

 End Sub 

          ”””””””””””””””’ Keep up with which cell I am on ””””””””””””””’

Private Sub dgv_CellMouseEnter(ByVal sender As Object, _
ByVal e As DataGridViewCellEventArgs) _
Handles dgv.CellMouseEnter

     theCellImHoveringOver = e

End Sub

”””””””””””””””””” Handler of Menu Clicks  ””””””””””””””””””’

 

Private Sub stripToShow _Item_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)

      Dim str As String = CType(sender, System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem).Text

      dgv.Rows(theCellImHoveringOver.RowIndex).Cells(“Column_Name_Here”).Value = str

End Sub

I think that is all there is to it! Let me know if you use it. It’s nice to hear others find this type of stuff useful as well.