Add attributes to DataColumn

Question

I am creating a reporting component that takes an IEnumerable input and performs some transformations and aggregations and returns a new IEnumerable with a dynamic number of columns. I am using ADO.NET for this because it is easy to create a DataTable with the appropriate columns.

The transformed IEnumerable is sent to a reporting visualization component that uses information stored in Attributes to format the results nicely. It's not necessary to be able to remove or change the attributes once they have been applied.

My question is this: Is it possible to associate an Attribute with a DataColumn so that the PropertyDescriptor emitted by the ADO.NET DataView includes these Attributes?

Follow-up question: If this is not possible with ADO.NET are there other libraries that I can use to accomplish this?

Edit: Update for clarity I would like to be able to do something like this:

DataTable dt = new DataTable();
DataColumn example = dt.Columns.Add("Test",typeof(double));

//This is the functionality I am looking for ideally
example.AddAttribute(new CustomAttribute("Hello"));

public class CustomAttribute : Attribute
{
}

Answer 1

See the ExtendedProperties property on DataColumns. This allows you to add custom data to a datacolumn. You would have to write the code that uses this custom data yourself, however - the formatting (or what ever you intend the data to be used for) isn't automatic.

Answer 2

To answer my own question: It's not possible to inject attributes into a DataColumn and have them appear in the PropertyDescriptor that DataView's implementation of ITypedList emits