How to sort DataGridView when bound to a binding source that is linked to an EF4 Entity

Question

I have a DataGridView that is linked to a BindingSource.

My BindingSource is linked to an IQueryable list of entities:

    public void BindTo(IQueryable elements)
    {
        BindingSource source = new BindingSource();
        source.DataSource = elements;

        bindingNavigator1.BindingSource = source;
        dataGridView1.DataSource = source;

    }

I am wanting my users to be able to click on the grid headers to sort the data - struggling to get this to work. Is it possible? If so, how do I do it?

Answer 1

I recently struggled with this same issue; it seems that the IQueryable interface doesn't provide enough information for the DataViewGrid to know how to sort the data automatically; so you have to either repackage your collection from the Entity source using something it can use or do what I did and handle the sorting functionality manually:

      private void myDataGridView_ColumnHeaderMouseClick(object sender, DataGridViewCellMouseEventArgs e)
  {
     DataGridViewColumn column = myDataGridView.Columns[e.ColumnIndex];

     _isSortAscending = (_sortColumn == null || _isSortAscending == false);

     string direction = _isSortAscending ? "ASC" : "DESC";

     myBindingSource.DataSource = _context.MyEntities.OrderBy(
        string.Format("it.{0} {1}", column.DataPropertyName, direction)).ToList();

     if (_sortColumn != null) _sortColumn.HeaderCell.SortGlyphDirection = SortOrder.None;
     column.HeaderCell.SortGlyphDirection = _isSortAscending ? SortOrder.Ascending : SortOrder.Descending;
     _sortColumn = column;
  }

I hope that helps.

Answer 2

VB.NET

If you are using a bindingsource with linq syntax you can sort your data like this

In this case When loading a bindningsource associated with a datagridview from entity framwork objects "NCFile" with having a foreign column to a list of "NCFilePartSet "

bsFileSections.DataSource = From ncfps In NCFile.NCFilePartSet Order By ncfps.Sort Select ncfps 

or like this

bsFileSections.DataSource = NCFile.NCFilePartSet.OrderBy(Function(ncfps) ncfps.Sort)

where "Sort" is a column in NCFilePartSet

Updates on entities continue working and reflects back to the database