How can I sort a WinForms DataGridView on a CheckBox column? - vb.net

Question

So I had a DataGridView with autogenerated columns, some of which were checkbox columns. When I clicked on the check box column's header, it didn't sort. I researched it and it turns out that Microsoft didn't include automatic sorting for checkbox columns... Which I think is absurd--how hard is it to sort checked / not checked?
How can you get a DataGridView to sort check box columns for you?
Here's what I came up with:

Answer 1

You could also simply do this:
DataGridView.Columns("ColumnOfChoice").SortMode = DataGridViewColumnSortMode.Automatic
Works in vb.net 4.0

Answer 2

You only need to add next lines to the code of the form (tested in VB.NET 2013)
Private Sub DataGridView1_ColumnAdded(sender As Object, e As System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewColumnEventArgs) Handles DataGridView1.ColumnAdded
If e.Column.GetType Is GetType(DataGridViewCheckBoxColumn) Then
e.Column.SortMode = DataGridViewColumnSortMode.Automatic
End If
End Sub

Answer 3

First you need to hook into two events, the column added event and the column header click event:
AddHandler dg.ColumnAdded, AddressOf dgColumnAdded
AddHandler dg.ColumnHeaderMouseClick, AddressOf dgSortColumns
Then, enable programmatic sorting for each check box column:
Private Sub dgColumnAdded(ByVal sender As Object, _
ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewColumnEventArgs)
If e.Column.GetType Is GetType(DataGridViewCheckBoxColumn) Then
e.Column.SortMode = DataGridViewColumnSortMode.Programmatic
End If
End Sub
Then, create a handler that will sort a checkbox column, but do nothing for columns that will handle their own sorting:
Private Sub dgSortColumns(ByVal sender As Object, _
ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewCellMouseEventArgs)
Dim dg As DataGridView = sender
Dim c As DataGridViewColumn = dg.Columns(e.ColumnIndex)
If c.SortMode = DataGridViewColumnSortMode.Programmatic Then
If dg.SortedColumn IsNot Nothing _
AndAlso dg.SortedColumn.Name <> c.Name Then
dg.Sort(c, System.ComponentModel.ListSortDirection.Ascending)
Else
Select Case dg.SortOrder
Case Windows.Forms.SortOrder.None
dg.Sort(c, System.ComponentModel.ListSortDirection.Ascending)
Case Windows.Forms.SortOrder.Ascending
dg.Sort(c, System.ComponentModel.ListSortDirection.Descending)
Case Windows.Forms.SortOrder.Descending
dg.Sort(c, System.ComponentModel.ListSortDirection.Ascending)
End Select
End If
End If
End Sub
And there you go! Now was it really that hard, Microsoft? ;-)

Answer 4

I'm not sure about VB, but for C# in VS2012 in the designer you can also set the SortMode.
Right-click on the DataGridView and go to "Edit Columns".
There's a drop-down for SortMode with a choice of NotSortable, Automatic, and Programmatic.
It appears that the default for most columns is Automatic, but for checkboxes (boolean) columns the default is NotSortable.

Answer 5

I have created an extension method that you can reuse, you just need to use it during the form load event.
------ Be sure that your DataSource is sortable. ------
If you are binding the DataGridView to a simple List it WONT WORK, you need to use something else, I recommend you to use this SortableBindingList; You can pass directly your original List IEnumerable to the SortableBindingList's constructor.
Load:
private void frmWithTheDataGrid_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.yourDataGridView.SortabilizeMe();
}
Then add this into a static class to use it as an ExtensionMethod..
public static void SortabilizeMe(this DataGridView dgv)
{
dgv.ColumnAdded+= delegate(object sender, DataGridViewColumnEventArgs args)
{
args.Column.SortMode = DataGridViewColumnSortMode.Programmatic;
};
dgv.ColumnHeaderMouseClick += delegate(object sender, DataGridViewCellMouseEventArgs args)
{
var col = dgv.Columns[args.ColumnIndex];
if (dgv.SortedColumn != null && dgv.SortedColumn.Name != col.Name)
{
dgv.Sort(row, ListSortDirection.Ascending);
}
else
{
switch (dgv.SortOrder)
{
case SortOrder.None:
dgv.Sort(col, ListSortDirection.Ascending);
break;
case SortOrder.Ascending:
dgv.Sort(col, ListSortDirection.Descending);
break;
case SortOrder.Descending:
dgv.Sort(col, ListSortDirection.Ascending);
break;
}
}
};
}
Then magic will happen :)