Handling Editors' events

Updated on Aug 27, 2026

In some cases you may need to perform a specific operation depending on the user input in the editor while the editor is still opened.

For example if you are in GridViewTextBoxColumn, the editor for the cells in this column is RadTextBoxEditor. You may need to set specific text in the text box editor when the user presses CTRL + L. In this case, you should subscribe to the KeyDown event of the RadTextBoxEditorElement in the CellEditorInitialized event handler. The editors in RadGridView are reused, so we define a field which prevents us from subscribing to the KeyDown more than once.

C#

public HandlingEditorsEvents()
{
    InitializeComponent();
    radGridView1.CellEditorInitialized += new Telerik.WinControls.UI.GridViewCellEventHandler(radGridView1_CellEditorInitialized);
}

bool tbSubscribed = false;

void radGridView1_CellEditorInitialized(object sender, Telerik.WinControls.UI.GridViewCellEventArgs e)
{
    RadTextBoxEditor tbEditor = this.radGridView1.ActiveEditor as RadTextBoxEditor;
    if (tbEditor != null)
    {
        if (!tbSubscribed)
        {
            tbSubscribed = true;
            RadTextBoxEditorElement tbElement = (RadTextBoxEditorElement)tbEditor.EditorElement;
            tbElement.KeyDown += new KeyEventHandler(tbElement_KeyDown);
        }
    }
}

void tbElement_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.Control)
    {
        if (e.KeyCode == Keys.L)
        {
            ((RadTextBoxEditorElement)sender).Text = "Default text";
        }
    }
}

VB.NET

Public Sub New()
    InitializeComponent()

    AddHandler RadGridView1.CellEditorInitialized, AddressOf radGridView1_CellEditorInitialized
End Sub


Private tbSubscribed As Boolean = False

Private Sub radGridView1_CellEditorInitialized(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As Telerik.WinControls.UI.GridViewCellEventArgs)
    Dim tbEditor As RadTextBoxEditor = TryCast(Me.RadGridView1.ActiveEditor, RadTextBoxEditor)
    If Not tbEditor Is Nothing Then
        If (Not tbSubscribed) Then
            tbSubscribed = True
            Dim tbElement As RadTextBoxEditorElement = CType(tbEditor.EditorElement, RadTextBoxEditorElement)
            AddHandler tbElement.KeyDown, AddressOf tbElement_KeyDown
        End If
    End If
End Sub

Private Sub tbElement_KeyDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As KeyEventArgs)
    If e.Control Then
        If e.KeyCode = Keys.L Then
            CType(sender, RadTextBoxEditorElement).Text = "Default text"
        End If
    End If
End Sub

See Also

• How to Move the Current Row with Arrow Keys while RadGridView is in Edit Mode

• Customizing editor behavior

• Data validation

• Overview

• Events

• Using custom editors