Displaying a multi-valued column using a tabular UI

Question

I'm hoping to display a multi-valued column in a tabular UI format. By multi-valued column, I mean a column in which a single cell can simultaneously have multiple values -- aka a list of values. These values might be drawn from a short list of possibilities (e.g. an enumeration) or from a long list (e.g. another table). Imagine a table of contacts with a "friends" column that can refer to zero or more other contacts.

I need the ability to add new values, remove values, and ideally the values would be listed horizontally and word wrapped. I have a feeling that no out-of-the-box datagrid control on the planet can do this, but I figured this is the right forum to ask such a question.

I'm guessing that the current state of the art is to display the information in a form, not in a table (e.g. "details" of a row). However, we would like to actually display the values in a column of the table in a horizontally wrapped, in-line editable fashion. At this time, we are planning to use WPF, so I'm hoping for a WPF solution.

Answer 1

WPF is definitely the right tool for this job. I don't think you'll find it very difficult to get the layout you want once you understand a few core WPF concepts (mostly binding and DataTemplates). I would suggest maybe a ListView/GridView with a GridViewColumn with a custom CellTemplate containing an ItemsControl with its own DataTemplate...Simple, really ;-)