Best Way to Make DataGridView Pick Box

In VS 2005, ASP.NET 3, I would like to make a pick box which would be a form containing a DataGridView where:

- The user could type in one or more characters into a text box
- When they stopped typing for say 1/2 second, the program would find the first match, if any, of the chars already typed in, and highlight that ro in the DataGridView.
- They could click on "select", key in CTRL + S, etc, and the form would return the primary key of the selected row, then close.

My question is the quickest way to populate the grid, then the quickest way to loop through the records to find a match. Lets say the grid contains 1,500 records. One column is a company name. The primary key value is not visible to the user.

I've used such a form in other programs and it has worked well, but I was able to do an indexed search of the underlying records. I don't see any way here to do an indexed search, either through the grid rows or through the underlying data set. It's for heads down data entry, no mouse, so I need to get it as fast as possible.

Can anyone recommend a strategy for quickly finding a value in a row of a datagrid, or of quickly finding a value in the underlying data set, then synching the data grid to it

Many thanks
Mike Thomas

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Best Way to Make DataGridView Pick Box

borice
Take a look at the ASP.Net Ajax library's auto complete extender.
chaza
Ken, thanks for your reply. You would use AJAX in a Windows app I am not much of an expert in Web apps or AJAX, but I associate AJAX with Web apps.

If we have understood each other correctly, then this might be worth a look.

Rgds,
Mike Thomas
cjou2004
Sorry I missread your question. I you were using asp.net and thought it was for a webform.
singam
Mike, have you found a solution I'm working on the same issue.

I want to have the user simply start typing and after a pause, the control jumps to the first record that matches the entry. The user doesn't even really need to see the characters entered. In fact it's better if they don't, that just clutters the screen and the user is looking at the datagridview anyway.

Of course, I want to control which field is being searched, since it may not be the first visible column.
Best Way to Make DataGridView Pick Box

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