How to disable arrow keys in a DataGridView?

Question

I have a DataGridView in C# and need to disable the arrow keys (so they cannot navigate the list via keys). I have tried this:

    void dataGridView1_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
    {
        switch (e.KeyData & Keys.KeyCode)
        {
            case Keys.Up:
            case Keys.Right:
            case Keys.Down:
            case Keys.Left:
                e.Handled = true;
                e.SuppressKeyPress = true;
                break;
        }

    }

But it did not disable the arrow keys. Any thoughts?

I tried this handler, but got a compile error:

this.dataGridView1.KeyDown += new System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewCellEventHandler(this.dataGridView1_KeyDown);

Error 1 No overload for 'dataGridView1_KeyDown' matches delegate 'System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewCellEventHandler' Form1.Designer.cs 78 43 FaxMonitorCSharp

@KCdod That might be it. Is there a GUI I can edit, or do I need to do that through the code still? — JBurace, Jan 26 '15 at 17:06
That's the wrong event handler. Try using just `this.dataGridView1.KeyDown += dataGridView1_KeyDown;` in your form's constructor. — LarsTech, Jan 26 '15 at 21:57
If you are using visual studio, you can simply bind the event from datagrid's event list [Search for keydown event] — Kavindu Dodanduwa, Jan 27 '15 at 02:46
I wrote an answer to this question here. https://stackoverflow.com/a/76125199/8458887 — Hellboy., Apr 28 '23 at 19:13

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 30 '15 at 23:26

Binding the KeyDown event works great so long as the current cell isn't in EditMode, but if it is you'll need to get a bit more creative. I created an inherited DataGridView class, overrode ProcessCmdKey as follows.

class NewDataGridView : System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView
{
    protected override bool ProcessCmdKey(ref System.Windows.Forms.Message msg, System.Windows.Forms.Keys keyData)
    {
        (FindForm() as Form1).DataGridViewKeyDown((DataGridView)this, keyData);
        //return base.ProcessCmdKey(ref msg, keyData);
        return true;
    }
}

This absorbs all keypresses for the datagridview and redirects them to a method that lives in the container form.

How to disable arrow keys in a DataGridView?

1 Answers1