DataGridView.CellPainting Event

Definition

Occurs when a cell needs to be drawn.

C#
public event System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewCellPaintingEventHandler CellPainting;
C#
public event System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewCellPaintingEventHandler? CellPainting;

Event Type

Examples

The following code example illustrates how to use this event to customize the appearance of all cells in a particular column.

This code is part of a larger example available in How to: Customize the Appearance of Cells in the Windows Forms DataGridView Control.

C#
private void dataGridView1_CellPainting(object sender,
System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewCellPaintingEventArgs e)
{
    if (this.dataGridView1.Columns["ContactName"].Index ==
        e.ColumnIndex && e.RowIndex >= 0)
    {
        Rectangle newRect = new Rectangle(e.CellBounds.X + 1,
            e.CellBounds.Y + 1, e.CellBounds.Width - 4,
            e.CellBounds.Height - 4);

        using (
            Brush gridBrush = new SolidBrush(this.dataGridView1.GridColor),
            backColorBrush = new SolidBrush(e.CellStyle.BackColor))
        {
            using (Pen gridLinePen = new Pen(gridBrush))
            {
                // Erase the cell.
                e.Graphics.FillRectangle(backColorBrush, e.CellBounds);

                // Draw the grid lines (only the right and bottom lines;
                // DataGridView takes care of the others).
                e.Graphics.DrawLine(gridLinePen, e.CellBounds.Left,
                    e.CellBounds.Bottom - 1, e.CellBounds.Right - 1,
                    e.CellBounds.Bottom - 1);
                e.Graphics.DrawLine(gridLinePen, e.CellBounds.Right - 1,
                    e.CellBounds.Top, e.CellBounds.Right - 1,
                    e.CellBounds.Bottom);

                // Draw the inset highlight box.
                e.Graphics.DrawRectangle(Pens.Blue, newRect);

                // Draw the text content of the cell, ignoring alignment.
                if (e.Value != null)
                {
                    e.Graphics.DrawString((String)e.Value, e.CellStyle.Font,
                        Brushes.Crimson, e.CellBounds.X + 2,
                        e.CellBounds.Y + 2, StringFormat.GenericDefault);
                }
                e.Handled = true;
            }
        }
    }
}

Remarks

You can handle this event to customize the appearance of cells in the control. You can paint entire cells yourself, or paint specific parts of cells and use the DataGridViewCellPaintingEventArgs.PaintBackground or DataGridViewCellPaintingEventArgs.PaintContent methods to paint other parts. You can also use the VisualStyleRenderer class to paint standard controls using the current theme. For more information, see Rendering Controls with Visual Styles. If you are using Visual Studio 2005, you also have access to a large library of standard images that you can use with the DataGridView control.

When handling this event, you should access the cell through the parameters of the event handler, rather than access the cell directly.

For more information about how to handle events, see Handling and Raising Events.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
Windows Desktop 3.0, 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

See also