Question

VB.Net’s DataGridView supports naming columns, but I was wondering if it could somehow do the same for rows, so that we could use something like this:

With DataGridView1
    .Rows.Add(4)

    .Rows(0).Name = "Setting1"
    .Rows(1).Name = "Setting2"

    'Added two columns at design time
    .Columns("Key").Row("Setting1") = "Key1"
    .Columns("Value").Row("Setting1") = "Value1"
    .Columns("Key").Row("Setting2") = "Key2"
    .Columns("Value").Row("Setting2") = "Value2"
End With

Do you confirm that it’s not possible and we must use numeric indexes to refer to row numbers?

Answer 1

There is no Name property on DataGridViewRow, so no, it’s not possible.

You could always use a Dictionary to tie a name to a DataGridViewRow:

Dim dictRows As New Dictionary(Of String, DataGridViewRow)

'Map names to corresponding rows
dictRows.Add("Setting1", DataGridView1.Rows(0))
dictRows.Add("Setting2", DataGridView1.Rows(1))

'Access rows with names, using dictionary
dictRows("Setting1").Cells("Key").Value = "Key1"
dictRows("Setting1").Cells("Value").Value = "Value1"