Remove sorting arrow in datagridview header and put the text in the center of the box

Question

I am working on a project which required header text to be in the center, and when click the header it will do the sorting. But the problem is, there is a sorting arrow icon, even when its not showing it push the text to the left. What i want to achieve is

-removing the sorting arrow and put the text to the center but still keep the sorting function

p/s: i tried handle cell event paint and repaint everything in headercell except for .contentbackground the arrow gone but the text is still pushed to the left. here is the code:

void dataGridView1_CellPainting(object sender, DataGridViewCellPaintingEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.RowIndex == -1)
    {
        e.Paint(e.CellBounds, DataGridViewPaintParts.All &~DataGridViewPaintParts.ContentBackground);

        e.Handled = true;
    }
}

-keep the sorting arrow but always show it

i am working with vb .net but code in c# is fine

how the header is right now

how i want the header to look like

thank you very much

Answer 1

For aligning column header text at the middle, you can rely on DataGridView properties. But for custom sort icon, you need custom paint.

To set column header text alignment:

• Set Alignment property of the ColumnHeadersDefaultCellStyle to MiddleCenter .

To paint custom sort icon:

• Handle the CellPainting event and check if we are painting the header:

   if (e.RowIndex == -1) //It's header cell 

• Paint cell background

   e.PaintBackground(e.CellBounds, false); 

• Paint content foreground (text):

   e.Paint(e.CellBounds, DataGridViewPaintParts.ContentForeground); 

• Paint custom sort glyph using DrawImage or by drawing a suitable character:

   if (grid.SortedColumn?.Index == e.ColumnIndex) { var sortIcon = grid.SortOrder == SortOrder.Ascending ? "▲":"▼"; //Just for example I rendered a character, you can draw an image. TextRenderer.DrawText(e.Graphics, sortIcon, e.CellStyle.Font, e.CellBounds, sortIconColor, TextFormatFlags.VerticalCenter | TextFormatFlags.Right); } 

• Stop default paint

   e.Handled = true; 

Note - Draw Visual Styles Sort Icon

• If you wanted to draw default sort icon:

   e.Paint(e.CellBounds, DataGridViewPaintParts.ContentBackground); 

• Just as an example, drawing visual style sort icon:

   if (grid.SortedColumn?.Index == e.ColumnIndex) { var sortIcon = grid.SortOrder == SortOrder.Ascending ? VisualStyleElement.Header.SortArrow.SortedUp : VisualStyleElement.Header.SortArrow.SortedDown; var renderer = new VisualStyleRenderer(sortIcon); var size = renderer.GetPartSize(e.Graphics, ThemeSizeType.Draw); renderer.DrawBackground(e.Graphics, new Rectangle(e.CellBounds.Right - size.Width, e.CellBounds.Top, size.Width, e.CellBounds.Height)); }