VSFlexGrid Introduction

The VSFlexGrid control is a powerful, full-featured grid. It provides new ways to display, edit, format, organize, summarize, and print tabular data.

The VSFlexGrid control was designed to be used either in unbound mode, where the grid "owns" the data, or in data-bound mode, where the grid is used to view and edit data that that belongs to a database.

VSFlexGrid 8.0 ships with three versions of the VSFlexGrid control. Each version has its own OCX file and supports a different type of data binding:

OCX File	Description
vsflex8.ocx	This version provides support for ADO/OLEDB data Binding, the latest data binding standard from Microsoft. It requires ADO to be installed on the Computer.
vsflex8d.ocx	This version provides support for DAO data binding, the more traditional type of data binding supported by Visual Basic's built-in Data Control.
vsflex8l.ocx	This version has no support for data-binding. Use it when your application does not require data-binding and you want to reduce the number of components your application depends on.
vsflex8u.ocx	This is a Unicode version that provides support for ADO/OLEDB data binding. It only runs on Windows NT systems.
vsflex8n.ocx	This file contains a Unicode version of the VSFlexGrid Light control.

The following sections walk you through the main features in the VSFlexGrid control:

Basic Operations

Describes how to set up the grid dimensions and layout, and the concepts of "current cell" and "selection".

Editing Cells

Describes how to implement simple text editing, drop-down lists and combo lists, cell buttons, editing masks, and data validation.

Formatting Cells

Describes how to customize the appearance of the grid by formatting numbers, dates, and values, or by changing fonts, colors, alignment, and pictures for individual cells or ranges.

Outlining and Summarizing

Describes how to add subtotals to grids and how to build outline trees.

Merging Cells

Describes how to change the grid display so that cells with similar contents are merged, creating "grouped" views that highlight relationships in the data.

Saving, Loading, and Printing

Describes how you can save the contents or formatting of a grid and re-load it later, or exchange grid data with other applications such as Microsoft Access and Excel. This section also shows how you can print grids.

Data Binding (ADO and DAO)

Discusses the basic aspects of ADO/OLEDB and DAO data-binding.

Other types of Data Binding

Discusses how you can bind the VSFlexGrid control to arrays of Variants, to other VSFlexGrid controls, or to custom data sources that you can implement yourself.

Using VSFlexGrid in Visual C++

Shows useful techniques and programming tips on how to use the VSFlexGrid control in Visual C++, both in MFC and in ATL projects.

Using VSFlexGrid in Visual J++

Shows programming tips on how to use the VSFlexGrid control in Visual J++.

VSFlexGrid Property Groups

Presents a map of the main VSFlexGrid properties cross-referenced by function.