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Data Annotations

Updated on Oct 6, 2026

RadGridView reads supported attributes from properties of bound .NET objects to configure generated columns, headers, formatting, and editability. The attributes described here come from System.ComponentModel and System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.

Configure Generated Columns

When AutoGenerateColumns is enabled, RadGridView creates columns from the public properties of the bound objects. The supported attributes control whether a property appears, the generated column's caption and position, grouping labels, formatting, and editability. For matching manually created columns, Display, DisplayFormat, and Editable metadata is applied when the corresponding column property has not been explicitly set. Browsable(false) hides a matching manual column unless its visibility was explicitly set.

The following example applies the supported attributes to a bound model:

csharp

using System.ComponentModel;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;

public class Product
{
	[Display(Name = "Product name", ShortName = "Name", Order = 0, GroupName = "Inventory")]
	public string Name { get; set; }

	[Display(Name = "Unit price", Order = 1, GroupName = "Inventory")]
	[DisplayFormat(DataFormatString = "{0:C2}", NullDisplayText = "Not set", ApplyFormatInEditMode = true)]
	public decimal? UnitPrice { get; set; }

	[Editable(AllowEdit = false)]
	public string SKU { get; set; }

	[DisplayName("Created by")]
	public string CreatedBy { get; set; }

	[ReadOnly(true)]
	public string ImportBatch { get; set; }

	[Display(AutoGenerateField = false)]
	public string InternalCode { get; set; }

	[Browsable(false)]
	public string InternalNotes { get; set; }
}

Bind a collection of Product objects to RadGridView. The InternalCode property is omitted from auto-generated columns, and InternalNotes is not browsable. The other attributes configure the generated columns as described below.

Supported Attributes

Attribute	RadGridView behavior
`Browsable(false)`	Excludes the property from automatic column generation. A matching manually created column is hidden unless its `IsVisible` value was explicitly set.
`Display(Name = "...")`	Sets the column header. Resource-backed names are supported by setting `ResourceType` to the resource class and `Name` to the resource property key.
`Display(ShortName = "...")`	Sets the column header when `Name` is not specified. If both are specified, `Name` takes precedence.
`Display(Order = n)`	Orders automatically generated columns by the specified value. Properties without an order follow ordered properties; properties with the same order retain their original property order.
`Display(AutoGenerateField = false)`	Excludes the property from automatic column generation. It does not remove a matching manually created column.
`Display(GroupName = "...")`	Supplies the group label in grouped row headers and the group panel. It does not replace the column header.
`DisplayFormat(DataFormatString = "...")`	Sets the column's display format.
`DisplayFormat(NullDisplayText = "...")`	Sets the text displayed for a null value.
`DisplayFormat(ApplyFormatInEditMode = true)`	Applies `DataFormatString` while editing as well as displaying. For decimal columns, standard `C`, `E`, `F`, `N`, and `P` formats with an explicit precision, such as `{0:C3}`, also set the column's decimal places.
`Editable(AllowEdit = false)`	Makes the generated or metadata-configured column read-only. Setting `AllowEdit = true` does not make an otherwise read-only property editable.
`DisplayName("...")` (`System.ComponentModel`)	Sets the generated column header using component-model metadata.
`ReadOnly(true)` (`System.ComponentModel`)	Makes the generated column read-only based on the property's component-model metadata.

Data Annotations

Configure Generated Columns

Supported Attributes

See Also