How To Display Parent and Child Fields Together in a Windows Forms DataGrid by Using Visual Basic .NET (308057)

SUMMARY

This article demonstrates how to display a Windows Forms DataGrid control that is populated with parent and child information from a DataSet object. The sample in this article requires that you add a DataRelation class to DataSet so that DataGrid can navigate between parent and child records. As you move through the parent DataSet, you can click the plus sign (+) to the left of the DataGrid to view the related child records.

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Step-by-Step Example

1. Open Visual Studio .NET, and create a new Visual Basic Windows Application. Form1 is created by default.
2. Use the toolbox to add a Button control and a DataGrid control to Form1.
3. In the Properties window, change the Text property of the button to Load.
4. Double-click Load to add an event handler.
5. Add the following code to the top of the code window:

   Imports System.Data.SqlClient
   					

6. Add the following code to the Button1_Click event handler:

   Dim con As New SqlConnection("server=YourServer;uid=UID;pwd=PWD;database=northwind")
   Dim daCust As New SqlDataAdapter("Select * From Customers Where CustomerID Like 'A%'", con)
   Dim daOrders As New SqlDataAdapter("Select * From Orders Where CustomerID Like 'A%'", con)
   Dim ds As New DataSet()
   daCust.Fill(ds, "Cust")
   daOrders.Fill(ds, "Orders")
   'Build the relation between Orders and Customers.
   ds.Relations.Add("CustOrd", ds.Tables!Cust.Columns!CustomerID, ds.Tables!Orders.Columns!CustomerID)
   DataGrid1.DataSource = ds
   DataGrid1.DataMember = "Cust"
   					

7. Modify the SqlConnection string to point to a valid Microsoft SQL Server database.
8. Press the F5 key to compile and run the application.
9. Notice that the grid is empty initially. Click Load to populate the grid.
10. Click the plus sign (+) to display the links to the child records. In this example, one child relation appears. Click the relation to display the child records.
11. In the upper right corner of the grid, click the back arrow to return to the parent records.

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REFERENCES

For more information, refer to the "Walkthrough: Creating a Master-Detail Windows Form" topic in the Visual Studio .NET online help.

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