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Create a simple-bound control (Windows Forms .NET)

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With simple data binding, you can display a single data element, such as a column value from a dataset table to a control on a form. You can simple-bind any property of a control to a data value.

To simple-bind a control

  1. Connect to a data source.

  2. In Visual Studio, select the control on the form and display the Properties window.

  3. Expand the DataBindings property.

    The properties that are bound are displayed under the DataBindings property. For example, in most controls, the Text property is frequently bound.

  4. If the property you want to bind isn't one of the commonly bound properties, select the Ellipsis button ( Screenshot of the Ellipsis button in the Properties window of Visual Studio. ) in the Advanced box to display the Formatting and Advanced Binding dialog with a complete list of properties for that control.

  5. Select the property you want to bind and select the drop-down arrow under Binding. A list of available data sources is displayed.

  6. Expand the data source you want to bind to until you find the single data element you want. For example, if you're binding to a column value in a dataset table, expand the name of the dataset, and then expand the table name to display column names.

  7. Select the name of an element to bind to.

  8. If you're working in the Formatting and Advanced Binding dialog, select OK to return to the Properties window.

  9. If you want to bind more properties of the control, repeat steps 3 to 7.

    Note

    As simple-bound controls show only a single data element, it's typical to include navigation logic in a Windows Form with simple-bound controls.

To create a bound control and format the displayed data

With Windows Forms data binding, you can format the data displayed in a data-bound control by using the Formatting and Advanced Binding dialog.

  1. Connect to a data source.

  2. In Visual Studio, select the control on the form and then open the Properties window.

  3. Expand the DataBindings property, and then in the Advanced box, select the ellipsis button ( The Ellipsis button in the Properties window of Visual Studio. ) to display the Formatting and Advanced Binding dialog, which has a complete list of properties for that control.

  4. Select the property you want to bind, and then select the Binding arrow.

    A list of available data sources is displayed.

  5. Expand the data source you want to bind the property to until you find the single data element you want.

    For example, if you're binding to a column value in a dataset's table, expand the name of the dataset, and then expand the table name to display column names.

  6. Select the name of an element to bind to.

  7. In the Format type box, select the format you want to apply to the data displayed in the control.

    In every case, you can specify the value displayed in the control if the data source contains DBNull. Otherwise, the options vary slightly, depending on the format type you select. The following table shows the format types and options.

    Format type Formatting option
    No Formatting No options.
    Numeric Specify number of decimal places by using Decimal places up-down control.
    Currency Specify the number of decimal places by using Decimal places up-down control.
    Date Time Choose how the date and time should be displayed by selecting one of the items in the Type selection box.
    Scientific Specify the number of decimal places by using Decimal places up-down control.
    Custom Specify a custom format string.

    For more information, see Formatting Types. Note: Custom format strings aren't guaranteed to successfully round trip between the data source and bound control. Instead, handle the Parse or Format event for the binding and apply custom formatting in the event-handling code.

  8. Select OK to close the Formatting and Advanced Binding dialog and return to the Properties window.

See also