How to Display Multiple Members in a MultiColumnComboBox

2 Oct 20235 minutes to read

This section deals with displaying multiple members in a MultiColumnComboBox. Follow the steps to achieve the same.

1. Initialization of the MultiColumnComboBox.

​

C#

private Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.Tools.MultiColumnComboBox multiColumnComboBox1;
   this.multiColumnComboBox1 = new Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.Tools.MultiColumnComboBox();
   this.Controls.Add(this.multiColumnComboBox1);
   this.Load += Form1_Load;

VB.NET

Private multiColumnComboBox1 As Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.Tools.MultiColumnComboBox
   Me.multiColumnComboBox1 = New Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.Tools.MultiColumnComboBox()
   Me.Controls.Add(Me.multiColumnComboBox1)

1. Populate the MultiColumnComboBox with data. Refer Data Binding topic.

2. In order to display the contents of the entire row in the MultiColumnComboBox instead of the using DisplayMember property, can achieve by handling the MultiColumnComboBox.SelectedIndexChanged and MultiColumnComboBox.DropDown events as shown below.

​

C#

bool dropDownOpened = false;
   
   string text = "";
   
   private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
   {
       this.multiColumnComboBox1.SelectedIndexChanged += multiColumnComboBox1_SelectedIndexChanged;
       this.multiColumnComboBox1.DropDown += multiColumnComboBox1_DropDown;
   }
   
   private void multiColumnComboBox1_DropDown(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
   {
       this.dropDownOpened = true;
   }
   
   private void multiColumnComboBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
   {
       if (this.dropDownOpened == true)
       {
           for (int i = 1; i <= this.multiColumnComboBox1.ListBox.Grid.ColCount; i++)
           {
               text += this.multiColumnComboBox1.ListBox.Grid[this.multiColumnComboBox1.SelectedIndex + 1, i].Text + " ";
           }
           this.dropDownOpened = false;
           this.multiColumnComboBox1.Text = text;
       }
       text = "";
   }

VB.NET

Private dropDownOpened As Boolean = False
   
   Private text As String = ""
   
   Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
       AddHandler Me.multiColumnComboBox1.SelectedIndexChanged, AddressOf multiColumnComboBox1_SelectedIndexChanged
       AddHandler Me.multiColumnComboBox1.DropDown, AddressOf multiColumnComboBox1_DropDown
   End Sub
   
   Private Sub multiColumnComboBox1_DropDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
       Me.dropDownOpened = True
   End Sub
   
   Private Sub multiColumnComboBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
       If Me.dropDownOpened = True Then
           For i As Integer = 1 To Me.multiColumnComboBox1.ListBox.Grid.ColCount
               text += Me.multiColumnComboBox1.ListBox.Grid(Me.multiColumnComboBox1.SelectedIndex + 1, i).Text & " "
           Next
           Me.dropDownOpened = False
           Me.multiColumnComboBox1.Text = text
       End If
       text = ""
   End Sub

The output for the above code is shown below

View Sample in GitHub