Ways to Bind DataGridView in C# Windows Forms

Introduction

I would like to share multiple ways to bind a DataGridView to a Window Forms form using C#.

We will learn the following ways to bind a DataGridView.

Binding DataGridView using Generic List
Binding DataGridView using DataTable
Binding DataGridView using LINQ query result
Binding DataGridView using Array
Binding DataGridView using a two-dimension array
Binding DataGridView manually

1. Binding DataGridView with Generic List

Add the following class to the project:

public class Emp  
{  
    public int ID { get; set; }  
    public string Name { get; set; }  
    public string City { get; set; }   
    public Emp(int id, string name, string city)  
    {  
        this.ID = id;  
        this.Name = name;  
        this.City = city;  
    }  
}

Create List of Emp

protected List<Emp> GetEmpList()  
{  
    List<Emp> lEmp = new List<Emp>();  
    Emp oemp = new Emp(1234, "Devesh Omar", "GZB");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    oemp = new Emp(1234, "ROLI", "GZB");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    oemp = new Emp(1235, "ROLI", "MainPuri");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    oemp = new Emp(1236, "ROLI", "Kanpur");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    oemp = new Emp(1237, "Manish Omar", "GZB");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    oemp = new Emp(1238, "ROLI1", "MainPuri");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    oemp = new Emp(1239, "ROLI2", "MainPuri");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    oemp = new Emp(1230, "ROLI3", "CNB");  
   lEmp.Add(oemp);  
   oemp = new Emp(1231, "ROLI4", "CNB-UP");  
   lEmp.Add(oemp);  
   oemp = new Emp(1232, "ROLI5", "GHAZIABAD");  
   lEmp.Add(oemp);  
   oemp = new Emp(1233, "ROLI6", "UP");  
   lEmp.Add(oemp);  
   return lEmp;  
}

Binding Grid

dataGridView1.DataSource = GetEmpList();

The following will be the screen.

Binding DataGridView with Generic List

2. Binding DataGridView using DataTable

Create a DataTable and define the columns as in the following:

DataTable table = new DataTable();  
table.Columns.Add("ID", typeof(int));  
table.Columns.Add("NAME", typeof(string));  
table.Columns.Add("CITY", typeof(string));

Add Rows

table.Rows.Add(111, "Devesh", "Ghaziabad");  
table.Rows.Add(222, "ROLI", "KANPUR");  
table.Rows.Add(102, "ROLI", "MAINPURI");  
table.Rows.Add(212, "DEVESH", "KANPUR");

Binding DataGridView

dataGridView1.DataSource=table;

Running the code, the following will be the screen.

Binding DatagridView using Datatable

3. Binding DataGridView using LINQ query result

First we need to create a Generic list, the following is the sample code:

protected List<Emp> GetEmpList()  
{  
    List<Emp> lEmp = new List<Emp>();  
    Emp oemp = new Emp(1234, "Devesh Omar", "GZB");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    oemp = new Emp(1234, "ROLI", "GZB");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    oemp = new Emp(1235, "ROLI", "MainPuri");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    oemp = new Emp(1236, "ROLI", "Kanpur");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    oemp = new Emp(1237, "Manish Omar", "GZB");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    oemp = new Emp(1238, "ROLI1", "MainPuri");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    oemp = new Emp(1239, "ROLI2", "MainPuri");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    oemp = new Emp(1230, "ROLI3", "CNB");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    oemp = new Emp(1231, "ROLI4", "CNB-UP");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    oemp = new Emp(1232, "ROLI5", "GHAZIABAD");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    oemp = new Emp(1233, "ROLI6", "UP");  
    lEmp.Add(oemp);  
    return lEmp;  
}

Writing a LINQ query for the list above:

List<Emp> Lstemp = GetEmpList();  
var columns = from t in Lstemp  
orderby t.Name  
select new  
{  
    EmpID = t.ID,  
    Name = t.Name,  
    City = t.City  
};

Binding Grid

dataGridView1.DataSource = columns.ToList();

Running the code.

Binding DatagridView using Linq

Adding Row_number to the LINQ query:

List<Emp> Lstemp = GetEmpList();  
int Srno = 0;  
var columns = from t in Lstemp  
orderby t.Name  
select new  
{  
    Row_number=++Srno,  
    EmpID = t.ID,  
    Name = t.Name,  
    City = t.City  
};

In this query, we have Row_number=++Srno that would result in an auto-increment row and act as a row number.

query

4. Binding DataGridView using Array

Add the following class to the project:

public class Emp  
{  
    public int ID { get; set; }  
    public string Name { get; set; }  
    public string City { get; set; }  
  
    public Emp(int id, string name, string city)  
    {  
       this.ID = id;  
       this.Name = name;  
       this.City = city;  
    }  
}

Defining Array

var arrEmp = new[] {  
    new Emp( 1, "Devesh Omar", "Noida"),  
    new Emp( 2, "Roli", "Kanpur"),  
    new Emp( 3, "Roli Gupta", "Mainpuri"),  
    new Emp( 3, "Roli Gupta", "Kanpur"),  
    new Emp( 3, "Devesh Roli ", "Noida"),  
};

Binding Grid

dataGridView1.DataSource = arrEmp;

Binding DataGridView using Array

5. Binding DataGridView using Two dimension Array

Declaring Array

string[][] Array = new string[100][];

Adding values to the array:

for(int i = 0; i < 100; i++)  
Array[i] = new string[2] { "ROLI:"+i, "DEVESH:"+i };

Defining LINQ for array:

var data = (from arr in Array select new { Column_1 = arr[0], Column_2 = arr[1] });

Binding data

dataGridView1.DataSource = data.ToList();

Binding DatagridView using Two dimension Array

6. Binding DataGridView Manually

Defining columns

dataGridView1.ColumnCount = 3;  
dataGridView1.Columns[0].Name = "ID";  
dataGridView1.Columns[1].Name = "Name";  
dataGridView1.Columns[2].Name = "City";

Adding Rows

string[] row = new string[] { "1", "DEvesh omar", "NOIDA" };  
dataGridView1.Rows.Add(row);  
row = new string[] { "2", "ROLI", "KANPUR" };  
dataGridView1.Rows.Add(row);  
row = new string[] { "3", "DEVESH", "NOIDA!22" };  
dataGridView1.Rows.Add(row);  
row = new string[] { "4", "ROLI", "MAINPURI" };  
dataGridView1.Rows.Add(row);

Running the code:

Binding DatagridView

Conclusion

We have learned various ways to bind a DataGridView to a C# Windows Forms form.

7 Comments

Join the conversation! Your thoughts help the community grow.

Omar Vcitor Baco6y ago
Hello. I am interested in using Datagridview for data entry.
Omar Vcitor Baco6y ago
Nice Tutorials. Please keep it coming.
Purvesh Sangani10y ago
Which one method is faster than to other method?
Manish kumar10y ago
Nice article and thanks for sharing.
Devesh Omar12y ago
yes. we can
wasim addd12y ago
We Can Also Bind GridView From XML file .
Enos12y ago
Good tutorials but i want to bind it from the database no manually. how can you do that?