WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) is a powerful framework for building desktop apps. At the heart of many of these apps is the DataGrid – a control that displays, edits, and manages tabular data.
While WPF includes a basic DataGrid, it often lacks the advanced features and flexibility required for complex enterprise applications. Third-party suites like those from MESCIUS' ComponentOne, DevExpress, Telerik, Infragistics, and SyncFusion provide a cost-effective solution by filling these gaps with ready-to-use, feature-rich controls. The investment in these libraries quickly pays off through saved development time, smoother implementation, and fewer headaches compared to building these functionalities yourself.
In this article, we’ll break down the top WPF DataGrids on the market, helping you decide which one best fits your needs.
What sets FlexGrid apart from the competition is its blend of high performance and customization. It’s lightweight yet powerful, giving developers more control over how data is presented and managed.
FlexGrid also offers an extensive array of native advanced features that enhance both development efficiency and end-user experience. One such feature is the transposed grid option, which allows you to easily flip rows and columns for a unique and flexible data presentation.
Exceptional Performance: Handle large datasets of up to a billion rows, utilizing advanced virtualization for smooth scrolling and rapid rendering, ensuring minimal lag even with large amounts of data.
Customizable Data Presentation: Fully customize every part of the grid, from cell styles and headers to embedded elements like sparklines and images.
Data Binding: Automatically bind to .NET data sources or work in unbound mode for manual data manipulation and control.
Advanced Data Operations: It features built-in sorting, filtering, grouping, and aggregation, simplifying complex data operations without extra coding.
XAML and .NET Integration: Work seamlessly with WPF’s XAML and .NET for defining layouts, data binding, and behaviors, either through markup or code.
Excel-Like Functionality: Mimic Excel’s functionality with features like multi-column sorting, filtering menus, and the ability to freeze or pin rows and columns.
Hierarchical Data Visualization: Visualize complex data structures with tree grids, detail rows, and master-detail views for more advanced data presentations.
Pivot Table and Gantt View Support: Extend FlexGrid’s functionality with pivot tables for in-depth data analysis and Gantt views for project tracking.
Data Virtualization and Paging: Load data on demand to improve performance, with skeleton loading to display data previews as it’s fetched.
Custom Cell Editors: It includes built-in editors for numbers, dates, checkboxes, and combo boxes. Developers can also create custom editors for more specific use cases.
Conditional Formatting: Use the powerful formatting API to apply rules that highlight cells meeting certain criteria.
Transposed Grid Option: Flip rows and columns easily with the transposed grid feature for flexible data presentations.
DevExpress’ WPF DataGrid offers a breadth of functionality but comes with a tradeoff. It’s a complex data grid. This can make working with DevExpress more resource-intensive and challenging, particularly for smaller teams and more agile projects. The learning curve is steep, and fine-tuning it for less demanding use cases often requires more effort.
For teams prioritizing ease of use, speed of implementation, or needing a more streamlined experience, a different solution may offer a more balanced approach.
While Telerik RadGridView for WPF offers rich UI features, deep customization often requires more code and understanding of the larger ecosystem, making it a bit cumbersome. The "search as you type" feature is also less refined, which can be limiting in applications where users need to quickly sift through large datasets.
High Performance with Data Virtualization: Handle large datasets using built-in virtualization to ensure fast load times and smooth scrolling. This makes it a reliable option for apps dealing with big data.
Flexible Hierarchical Data: It supports hierarchical data structures and grouping with customizable headers for easier navigation of complex datasets.
Rich UI Customization: It gives you a lot of control over the look and feel of your grid. You can pick from predefined themes or fully customized grid elements. It also offers Excel-like filtering and skinning options, which can speed up development.
Grouping and Aggregates: It allows multiple-column grouping with drag-and-drop functionality. It also includes customizable group headers and footers, as well as aggregate functions for detailed data insights.
Search and Selection: It includes a search panel for filtering and highlighting text, with single or multiple row selection and pinned rows that stay visible during scrolling.
Data Validation and Editing: It supports inline editing and built-in validation, providing real-time feedback and custom error messages for a seamless data entry experience.
While Infragistics' integrated charting capabilities can be incredibly useful for data visualization, its datagrid falls short when it comes to filtering functionality. The grid supports basic filtering conditions, but its out-of-the-box options are less flexible compared to some competitors.
For more advanced needs, such as custom expressions or complex conditional filters, developers must rely on manual coding, which can slow down development and complicate implementation.
Despite its customization options, the SyncFusion WPF DataGrid can sometimes feel restrictive compared to the more flexible ComponentOne FlexGrid. SyncFusion’s UI components are perfectly functional but may lack the polish that others, like Telerik or DevExpress, offer, especially in terms of themes and visual appeal.
When choosing a data grid for WPF applications, developers need a solution that is performant, customizable, and easy to integrate. While the competitors – DevExpress, Telerik, Infragistics, and SyncFusion – all have their strengths, ComponentOne FlexGrid from MESCIUS stands out among the rest.
Unlike the other options, FlexGrid offers the most comprehensive filtering solutions, including filter row, Excel-like filtering, Amazon-like filtering, and even as-you-type text filtering. Its flexible extensibility also allows developers to focus on building application logic rather than getting lost in implementation details.
Its rich customization options and advanced functions – such as the transposed grid feature for unique layouts and pivot table support for powerful data manipulation – give developers the freedom to tailor the grid to any project’s needs. FlexGrid’s intuitive API streamlines integration into WPF projects, reducing the learning curve and accelerating development timelines.
Whether working with a billion rows of data or designing intricate UIs, FlexGrid offers the perfect balance between performance, flexibility, and ease of use – making it the ideal choice for any WPF project.