A DataGrid is not a spreadsheet

[Graham Samuel]

I will try it, but I am trying to understand what can be done in a standalone - no property inspector etc. One of the things one might want to do is to let the user rather than the developer specify the number of rows and columns. Maybe I have missed some key point.

Graham


> On 29 Jul 2016, at 23:25, Paul Dupuis <paul at researchware.com> wrote:
> 
> The default behavior of a Datagrid is a table (or column) view (vs. the
> Form view Datagrid can also do). In that default mode, the default is
> that clicking in a cell will edit the contents
> 
> However, when you drag a Datagrid control to a card, the default is that
> there are no rows and no columns until you add some. Just as an example,
> if you wanted a 10 row x 5 col "blank" editable table a user could put
> data into, you need to create the 5 empty columns and 10 rows.
> 
> You can do this in the property inspector for the the data grid. In the
> popup list of property panes (pre-LC8), select Columns and add some
> columns by clicking the small plus sign button. Their default names will
> be Col1, Col2, etc. To add "rows". Add 5 of them.  Then Select the
> Content pane in the Property Inspector and add 10 blank lines (enter 10
> return characters). This creates 10 empty rows in the data grid.
> 
> Close the property inspector and select the browse tool and click on one
> of the 50 cells (10 rows by 5 columns) and type in data. At any time to
> see a text view of the data (as tab and return delimited data), open the
> Message Box and enter
> 
> put the dgText of group "<the name of you data grid object>" into msg
> 
> and press return.
> 
> Try it.
> 
> On 7/29/2016 4:55 PM, Graham Samuel wrote:
>> Do you mean that a standalone can allow text to be entered in cells like in a spreadsheet without further coding? Obviously one would need scripting to add spreadsheet-like functions such as arithmetic operations; and to extend the functionality to manipulation of formulae would be a major task. But just being able to “click in an empty cell and enter data” would be a good start.
>> 
>> I have always tried not to use Datagrids as the seem to me so extraordinarily complicated. But if one were to write a “simplified spreadsheet” widget, would a Datagrid be the place to start? In a way I suppose the web of functionality in a Datagrid makes it a kind of proto-widget.
>> 
>> Curious
>> 
>> Graham
>> 
>>> On 29 Jul 2016, at 21:57, Paul Dupuis <paul at researchware.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> On 7/28/2016 10:24 PM, Javier Miranda V. wrote:
>>>> Dear friends, is it safe to say that a data grid is not a spreadsheet? I mean, you can not create a new data grid and then just click in a empty cell and enter data. 
>>>> 
>>>> With some practice and reading documentation, I am able to populate a datagrid with data from a database, and using a Table field in situation in which the user must fill-in data seems limited.  
>>>> 
>>> Yes, a Datagrid can be used much like a Spreadsheet. If you create a new
>>> data grid on a card, you need to bring up the property inspector and add
>>> some columns ay 5 columns) and add some blank rows (say 10 cr's (i.e. 10
>>> blank lines))  to the content property. If you then close the property
>>> inspector and select the run tool, you can click in any cell of the 10r
>>> x 5c spreadsheet you made and enter data.
>>> 
>>> You can fetch the data as tab and return delimited text by getting the
>>> dgText propert of the group that is the datagrid OR as an array by
>>> getting the dgData property.
>>> 
>>> You do need to add some external controls to add rows and column OR sort
>>> of like excel, you could prepopulate it with 65535 blank rows and 676
>>> columns (A - ZZ) and trim off the blank columns and row on the right and
>>> bottom when you want to fetch the data.
>>> 
>>> 
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