I needed ability to sort as well as pagination in a data grid view for an application. There are many approaches of implementing it but we had data in memory, prefetched. I used a dataview to create sorted, then paged based on counters generated manually. Here is the code for the same, but somehow I am not satisfied with the approach as its slow on large data sets. Any ideas how to do it faster?

//Form Load add a column, which is used keeping the sorted order, and then paging.

//Add an event handler to the DatagridView Sorted event

private void PageDemoForm_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

productsDataTable.Columns.Add("RecordIndex", typeof(int));

dataGridViewControl.Sorted += new EventHandler(dataControl_Sorted);

//Datagridview Sorted Event handler

private void dataControl_Sorted(object sender, EventArgs e)

//Sort the View, refresh record indexes, then filter the view on the indexes which fall between lowbound & highBound

//here pageSize is a class level constant which can be configured as needed.

private void SetView(int pageNumber)

int lowBound = pageSize * (pageNumber - 1);

int highBound = pageSize * pageNumber;

string sortExpression = (dataGridViewControl.SortedColumn == null) ? string.Empty : dataGridViewControl.SortedColumn.DataPropertyName + " " + ((dataGridViewControl.SortOrder == System.Windows.Forms.SortOrder.Ascending) ? "ASC" : "DESC");

//Created a sorted view

DataView pagedView = new DataView(productsDataTable, string.Empty, sortExpression, DataViewRowState.CurrentRows);

//generate row indexes, this is a hidden column in grid.

for (int i = 0; i < pagedView.Count; i++)

pagedView[i]["RecordIndex"] = i + 1;

//set RowFilter to get desired page records.

pagedView.RowFilter = "RecordIndex > " + lowBound + " AND " + highBound + " >= RecordIndex";

//hid the RecordIndex column from grid

DataGridViewTextBoxColumn invisibleColumn = new DataGridViewTextBoxColumn();

invisibleColumn.Visible = false;

invisibleColumn.DataPropertyName = "RecordIndex";

this.dataGridViewControl.Columns.Add(invisibleColumn);

this.dataGridViewControl.DataSource = pagedView;

//Click event for next page button

private void NextPage(object sender, EventArgs e)

currentPage = int.Parse(pageNumberTextBox.Text) + 1;

//Click event for previous page button

private void PreviousPage(object sender, EventArgs e)

currentPage = int.Parse(pageNumberTextBox.Text) - 1;

//Click event for last page button

private void LastPage(object sender, EventArgs e)

currentPage = this.productsDataTable.Rows.Count / pageSize;

int residue = this.productsDataTable.Rows.Count % pageSize;

if (residue > 0)

//Click event for first page button

private void FirstPage(object sender, EventArgs e)

 This is one of the funny logo designed, unintentional though.

    public partial class DemoGridView : Form

    {

        private string[] names = new string[] { "ABC", "XYZ", "UVW" };

        public DemoGridView()

        {

            InitializeComponent();

        }

        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            DataSet data = BuildDemoData();

            AddColumns(data);

            dataGridView1.DataSource = data.Tables["DemoData"];

            SetFilteredList(data, dataGridView1);

        }

        private void SetFilteredList(DataSet data, DataGridView demoGrid)

        {

            DataViewManager viewManager = new DataViewManager(data);

            demoGrid.AllowUserToAddRows = false;

            demoGrid.AllowUserToDeleteRows = false;

            for (int i = 0; i < demoGrid.Rows.Count; i++)

            {

                DataGridViewComboBoxCell comboCell = demoGrid[3, i] as DataGridViewComboBoxCell;

                DataView cellView = viewManager.CreateDataView(data.Tables["Mod3Numbers"]);

                cellView.RowFilter = "FilterID = " + demoGrid[0, i].Value.ToString();

                comboCell.DataSource = cellView;

            }

        }

        private void AddColumns(DataSet data)

        {

            DataGridViewTextBoxColumn idCol = new DataGridViewTextBoxColumn();

            idCol.HeaderText = "ID";

            idCol.DataPropertyName = "ID";

            idCol.Visible = false;

            DataGridViewTextBoxColumn nameCol = new DataGridViewTextBoxColumn();

            nameCol.HeaderText = "Name";

            nameCol.DataPropertyName = "Name";

            DataGridViewComboBoxColumn monthCol = new DataGridViewComboBoxColumn();

            monthCol.DataSource = data.Tables["Months"];

            monthCol.DisplayMember = "Name";

            monthCol.ValueMember = "ID";

            monthCol.DataPropertyName = "Month";

            DataGridViewComboBoxColumn fidCol = new DataGridViewComboBoxColumn();

            //FIDCol.DataSource = data.Tables["Mod3Numbers"].DefaultView;

            fidCol.DisplayMember = "Name";

            fidCol.ValueMember = "ID";

            fidCol.DataPropertyName = "FID";

            dataGridView1.Columns.Add(idCol);

            dataGridView1.Columns.Add(nameCol);

            dataGridView1.Columns.Add(monthCol);

            dataGridView1.Columns.Add(fidCol);

        }

        private DataSet BuildDemoData()

        {

            DataSet data = new DataSet();

            data.Tables.Add(GenerateListOfMonths());

            data.Tables.Add(GetListMod3());

            data.Tables.Add(GetMainList());

            return data;

        }

        private DataTable GetMainList()

        {

            DataTable demoTable = new DataTable("DemoData");

            demoTable.Columns.Add("ID", typeof(int));

            demoTable.Columns.Add("Name", typeof(string));

            demoTable.Columns.Add("Month", typeof(int));

            demoTable.Columns.Add("FID", typeof(int));

            Random rand = new Random(DateTime.Now.Millisecond % 100);

            DataRow demoRow;

            for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)

            {

                demoRow = demoTable.NewRow();

                demoRow[0] = i;

                demoRow[1] = names[i];

                demoRow[2] = rand.Next(1,12);

                demoRow[3] = 3*rand.Next(1,6) + i;

                demoTable.Rows.Add(demoRow);

            }

            return demoTable;

        }

        private DataTable GetListMod3()

        {

            DataTable mod3Table = new DataTable("Mod3Numbers");

            mod3Table.Columns.Add("Name", typeof(string));

            mod3Table.Columns.Add("ID", typeof(int));

            mod3Table.Columns.Add("FilterID", typeof(int));

            DataRow mod3Number;

            for (int i = 1; i <= 20; i++)

            {

                mod3Number = mod3Table.NewRow();

                mod3Number[0] = i.ToString();;

                mod3Number[1] = i;

                mod3Number[2] = i % 3;

                mod3Table.Rows.Add(mod3Number);

            }

            return mod3Table;

        }

        private DataTable GenerateListOfMonths()

        {

            DataTable monthsTable = new DataTable("Months");

            monthsTable.Columns.Add("Name", typeof(string));

            monthsTable.Columns.Add("ID", typeof(int));

            DataRow month;

            for (int i = 1; i <= 12; i++)

            {

                month = monthsTable.NewRow();

                month[0] = new DateTime(2000, i, i).ToString("MMMM");

                month[1] = i;

                monthsTable.Rows.Add(month);

            }

            return monthsTable;

        }

    }