WinForms Data Lookup Controls

Data Lookups

Our WinForms product line includes a comprehensive collection of Lookup editors – UI components designed to address a broad range of usage scenarios. Lookup controls include the following:

• Standard Lookup
• Grid-based Lookup
• Search Lookup
• TreeList Lookup

Data Source Types

All DevExpress Lookups support numerous data source types: from simple Lists and Arrays to dictionaries and remote data sources running on a web-server (and everything in between).

And yes, our Lookups allow you to display unbound values. Though the exact implementation for each lookup differs slightly, you are in total control when using our lookups in unbound mode – you can even mix bound/unbound values as needs dictate.

Cascading Lookups

As its name implies, this feature allows individual lookups to serve as filters for one another. You can create cascading lookups without writing any code. For more information and examples on Cascading Lookups, please refer to our online help files.

Automatic Suggestions

Unlike Auto-complete (which hides non-matching records within the data-bound lookup) AutoSuggest (Virtual Search) dynamically changes the editor's data source as users enter text and highlights search text in each result item (as such, it can work with completely empty, unbound editors).

Advanced options include:

• Custom Draw API
• Custom Value Highligting

Auto-Complete & Auto-Filter

Auto-complete forces a lookup editor to locate records that match the text entered by a user and displays the first item it locates within the lookup.

Auto-filter is a progressive search that allows you to locate matched text as you type. When you type within the edit box, a lookup editor automatically opens the dropdown window and displays only records that match the search string. Advanced search options include:

• Custom Search API
• Custom Value Highligting

Enter New Values

Our Lookup and Grid-based Lookup controls allow users enter new values (values/records that do not exist in the associated data source) on-the-fly.

WinForms Lookup Edit

Our WinForms LookUpEdit is a lightweight lookup control with a simple table layout. This WinForms control allows you to display flat lookup data with absolute ease. Its features include:

• Comprehensive Data Binding Support
• Unbound Records/Values
• Insert New Records/Values
• AutoSearch, AutoSuggest, and AutoComplete
• Cascading Record Selection
• Resizable Dropdown Window
• Multiple Item Selection

WinForms Grid-based Lookup

As its name implies, the Grid-based Lookup (GridLookUpEdit) embeds our legendary WinForms Data Grid within the dropdown. With its countless visualization options and dozens of high-impact features, you have total control over the lookup's UI/UX.

The capabilities available to you when using our WinForms Grid Lookup is nearly endless (display multiple columns, display images, sort/group against multiple column values, apply filters, calculate summaries, etc).

WinForms Table View

Our standard Grid/Table View displays information using a standard table metaphor. Its UI flexibility allows you to deliver custom user experiences with integrated runtime configuration options - giving users total control over the display of data within your app.

Bands

By using Standard Grid Bands, you can hide, display, and reorder entire column sets instead of performing the same operation on each individual column.

Advanced Grid Bands extend this UI metaphor by allowing you to arrange column headers and corresponding data cells across multiple rows - with cells that can occupy multiple rows.

Tile View

By using the Grid-based Lookup's Tile View, you can improve usability when lookup records include important images. The Tile View allows you to manually build templates to highlight important content. Tile layouts include:

• Table
• List
• Kanban Board

Optimized Data Loading

Our flexible data loading options allow you to display and shape data against hundreds of thousands of rows at incredibly fast speeds. This unmatched performance is achieved because the embedded Data Grid control allows you to load data on demand and move time-intensive data shaping operations to the server when appropriate (Server Mode).

Because our Grid Lookup does not load or cache data, it can display an unlimited number of rows on screen as fast as your dataset can acquire them. Whether its a 1000 or 100,000+ rows, our Grid-based Lookup can handle large datasets with ease.

Lookup with Integrated Search

The DevExpress Search Lookup (SearchLookUpEdit) is a Grid-based lookup with an embedded Find Panel. The Find Panel removes all complexities associated with data filtering and replicates the UX found in today's most popular apps.

The Find Panel allows users to enter a search string and initiate a search against all values displayed in the dropdown grid. It highlights matching results and supports delayed (sync) auto-search mode for optimal performance.

WinForms TreeList-based Lookup

Our WinForms TreeList-based Lookup (TreeListLookUpEdit) embeds our feature-complete WinForms TreeList within the lookup's dropdown and allows users to select values from self-referenced data structures (hierarchical lists) with ease.