Learn about the generic BindingList and how to extend this generic collection type to add sorting and searching functionality.

Behind the Scenes: Improvements to Windows Forms Data Binding in the .NET Framework 2.0, Part 2

When you search a lot on MSDN, you might encounter from time to time a nice example.  Yesterday I found such a nice example on the BindingSource Class page.

They created a new new Generic BindingList of the Font Class

public class MyFontList : BindingList<Font>
{
    protected override bool SupportsSearchingCore
    {
        get { return true; }
    }
    protected override int FindCore(PropertyDescriptor prop, object key)
    {
        // Ignore the prop value and search by family name.         for (int i = 0; i < Count; ++i)
        {
            if (Items[i].FontFamily.Name.ToLower() == ((string)key).ToLower())
                return i;
        }
        return -1;
    }
}        

To use this class, just fill the MyFontList and attach it to a bindingSource.

MyFontList fonts = new MyFontList();
for (int i = 0; i < FontFamily.Families.Length; i++)
{
    if (FontFamily.Families[i].IsStyleAvailable(FontStyle.Regular))
        fonts.Add(new Font(FontFamily.Families[i], 11.0F, FontStyle.Regular));
}
binding1.DataSource = fonts;
listBox1.DataSource = binding1;
listBox1.DisplayMember = "Name";