Basic Filtering in RadGridView

Updated on Jun 24, 2026

Use RadGridView filtering to help users narrow data by one or more columns. The control enables filtering out of the box for most primitive .NET types, including strings, numbers, and DateTime values.

If you want to filter a column that is bound to a custom type, see Filter a Custom Type.

Use this article to:

• Choose the right filtering mode.
• Understand how popup and filter-row filtering behave.
• Configure column-level filtering settings such as FilterMemberPath.
• Improve performance for distinct-value filters.

Use the IsFilteringAllowed property of RadGridView to disable filtering for the entire grid. To disable filtering for a single column, use the IsFilterable property of that column.

Filtering Mode

RadGridView provides three built-in filtering modes through the FilteringMode property. Use one of the following filtering modes depending on the filtering experience you want to provide.

Mode	Best for	Notes
Popup Filtering	Most common interactive filtering scenarios	Default mode. Supports distinct values and field filters.
Filter Row	Always-visible per-column filters	Simpler UI. Does not show distinct values.
Filter Editor	Complex filtering expressions	Uses RadDataFilter in a panel below the grid.

Popup Filtering

Popup filtering is the default mode in RadGridView. Users open the filtering UI by selecting the funnel icon in a column header.

The filtering popup

Distinct Values

The upper part of the popup shows the distinct values for the current column. By default, those values are collected from the currently visible rows after other column filters have already been applied. To change that behavior, see Display All Distinct Values.

The values shown to the user are display values. RadGridView applies the column DataMemberBinding IValueConverter or DataFormatString, if one is defined, before showing the value in the popup. The data engine still filters by the original raw value.

IValueConverter and DataFormatString affect only the UI text. Filtering always uses the raw data values.

By default, the popup shows only the first 1000 distinct values. To change that limit, see Display All Distinct Values.

If you do not need the distinct-values section, set the column ShowDistinctFilters property to False. This property applies only when FilteringMode is Popup.

Field Filters

The lower part of the popup contains two field filters joined by a logical operator. This allows criteria such as "age is greater than 18 and less than 60".

Each field filter has:

• An operator selector such as Is Equal To, Contains, or Is Less Than.
• An editor for the filter value.

The available operators depend on the column data type. For example, string columns expose operators such as Contains, while numeric and date columns expose comparison operators. For the complete operator list by type, see FilterDescriptor.

To remove operators or change the default operator, handle the FilterOperatorsLoading event as shown in Change the Default Selected Filter Operator.

The field filter editor also depends on the column data type. For example, date columns use a date editor. To replace the default editor, see Create a Custom Field Filter Editor. To customize the default editor, use the FieldFilterEditorCreated event as shown in Customize the Default Field Filter Editor.

If you do not need field filters, set the column ShowFieldFilters property to False. This property applies only when the filtering mode is Popup. For Boolean columns, its default value is False.

You can also control field filter generation in both Popup and FilterRow modes through the ShouldGenerateFieldFilterEditors property.

• null generates field filter editors for all non-Boolean columns.
• False prevents field filter editor generation and suppresses the FilterOperatorsLoading event.
• True affects Boolean columns only. It shows a checkbox editor together with the IsEqualTo and IsNotEqualTo operators instead of the synthetic True and False operators.

In Popup mode, both ShowFieldFilters and ShouldGenerateFieldFilterEditors affect field-filter creation. If either property is False, no field filter editors are created.

Deferred Filtering

By default, the popup applies filtering immediately when the user selects a distinct value or changes a field filter. When you use that immediate mode, you can hide the Filter button by setting the column ShowFilterButton property to False.

Use the column IsFilteringDeferred property to change that behavior. This property applies only when FilteringMode is Popup.

When IsFilteringDeferred is True, the grid waits until the user selects the Filter button. This mode is useful when filtering sends requests to a remote server. The Clear button always clears the column filters immediately and cannot be deferred.

Keep Filter Popup Open

Use the FilteringDropDownStaysOpen property of RadGridView to control whether the popup remains open after a click outside it. The default value is False. When set to True, the popup closes only when the user selects the Close button or the filter icon.

Filter Row

FilterRow places a filter editor directly in each filterable column header. This mode is simpler than Popup and does not support distinct values.

The editor shown in the header is equivalent to one of the two field filters from the popup UI, but it is always visible.

The filter rows

All filter-row filters start empty. After the user enters a value, they choose an operator from the funnel menu. The menu shows the operators that apply to the current column type.

Use the FilterOperatorsLoading event to remove operators from that list. In FilterRow mode, you cannot preselect a default operator through the event arguments. The user must choose it.

The operator list also includes Clear Filter, which resets the column filter.

Boolean columns do not show a value editor on the left side. Instead, they expose Is True and Is False operators, which provide a more direct filtering experience.

After the user enters a value and selects an operator, the filter becomes active. The funnel icon fills to indicate that the filter is active. Any later change to the value or operator is applied immediately.

When the user selects Clear Filter, the filter is removed and stays inactive until another operator is selected.

The column IsFilteringDeferred property does not apply in FilterRow mode.

As with Popup mode, you can provide your own field filter editor as described in Create a Custom Field Filter Editor. To customize the default field filter editor, use FieldFilterEditorCreated as shown in Customize the Default Field Filter Editor.

Custom filtering controls work only when FilteringMode is Popup. FilterRow cannot use custom filtering controls.

Filter Editor

FilterEditor displays a filtering panel below RadGridView. It uses RadDataFilter to build more complex filtering criteria than the other modes. For more detail, see Filter Editor.

FilterMemberPath

Each GridViewColumn exposes a FilterMemberPath property. Use it when the column must filter by a property other than the one displayed in the cell.

If the data engine cannot determine the type of the member automatically, set the FilterMemberType property as well.

The following example filters the column by the PropertyToFilterOn member instead of the displayed Name member.

Specifying the FilterMemberPath for a column

xaml

<telerik:GridViewDataColumn DataMemberBinding="{Binding Name}" FilterMemberPath="PropertyToFilterOn"/>

OptimizeDistinctFilterQuery

By default, RadGridView generates an OR condition for every selected distinct value. When the number of selected distinct values becomes large, that query can grow expensive.

Set the OptimizeDistinctFilterQuery property of GridViewColumn to True to let the grid generate the shortest possible LINQ Where clause.

The optimization works as follows:

• If the selected values are less than or equal to half of all distinct values, the grid keeps the original IsEqualTo query.
• If the selected values are more than half of all distinct values, the grid generates an inverted IsNotEqualTo query for the unchecked values.
• If all distinct values are selected, no filter statement is generated because the column is effectively unfiltered.

Distinct Values Filtering

The GridViewColumn base class exposes EnableDistinctValuesFiltering and DistinctValuesSearchMode, which allow users to search within the distinct-values list of a column.

When EnableDistinctValuesFiltering is True, the filtering control shows a RadWatermarkTextBox that filters the list of distinct values.

Use DistinctValuesSearchMode to control how the user input is matched. The available values are Contains, ContainsCaseSensitive, StartsWith, and StartsWithCaseSensitive.

EnableDistinctValuesFiltering and DistinctValuesSearchMode are intended for use when the FilteringMode of RadGridView is Popup.

The following example enables distinct-value filtering and uses a StartsWith search.

Setting EnableDistinctValuesFiltering and DistinctValuesSearchMode properties

xaml

<telerik:RadGridView DataContext="{StaticResource MyViewModel}"
                     ItemsSource="{Binding Clubs}"
                     AutoGenerateColumns="False">
    <telerik:RadGridView.Columns>
        <telerik:GridViewDataColumn Header="StadiumCapacity"
                                    DataMemberBinding="{Binding StadiumCapacity}"
                                    EnableDistinctValuesFiltering="True"
                                    DistinctValuesSearchMode="StartsWith"/>
    </telerik:RadGridView.Columns>
</telerik:RadGridView>

Filtering the StadiumCapacity column's distinct values

See Also

• Visual Structure

• Programmatic Filtering

• Reevaluation of data operations