Cell Editing — ReoGrid Docs

The cell editor is not a WinForms TextBox: it draws its own caret and selection. It shares the same layout code as the grid, so characters do not shift position between editing and committing.

Starting and ending an edit

Member	What it does
`control.BeginEdit(initialText)`	Starts editing (`null` keeps the current value)
`control.CancelEdit()`	Cancels and closes
`control.IsEditing`	Whether an edit is in progress

Typing or double-clicking starts one automatically. Enter or Tab commits; Esc cancels.

using unvell.ReoGrid.Avalonia;
using unvell.ReoGrid.Core;

grid.BeginEdit(null);        // start editing from the current value; pass a string to replace it instead
bool editing = grid.IsEditing;
grid.CancelEdit();           // cancel and close

How typed input is interpreted

To set a value from “what the user typed”, use the dedicated API.

Member	What it does
`control.GetActiveCellInput()`	`=`-prefixed for a formula, the display string otherwise
`control.SetActiveCellInput(text)`	Interprets the string and stores a value or a formula

SetActiveCellInput interprets by Excel’s rules.

Input	Result
`=SUM(A1:A2)`	a formula (the leading `=` is stripped before storing)
`1234`	a number
`TRUE` / `FALSE`	a boolean
`2026/07/28`	a date
anything else	text

Use these two when building your own formula bar. The model’s SetFormula does not accept a leading = (The Formula Engine).

// these two are what a hand-built formula bar needs; they parse by Excel's rules
string shown = grid.GetActiveCellInput();      // prefixed with "=" when it is a formula
grid.SetActiveCellInput("=SUM(A1:A2)");        // set as a formula
grid.SetActiveCellInput("1234");               // set as a number
grid.SetActiveCellInput("2026/07/28");         // set as a date

Formatted editing

Formatting can be changed per character while editing. It is saved as rich text when the edit is committed.

Member
`control.ToggleEditingBold()`
`control.ToggleEditingItalic()`
`control.ToggleEditingUnderline()`
`control.SetEditingTextColor(color)`

Wrapping and line breaks

Alt+Enter inserts a line break inside a cell.

When the cell has a TextWrapMode, the editor wraps at the column width too. The break points come from exactly the same calculation the grid renderer uses (kinsoku rules included), so the line breaks do not move when you commit. The editor grows downwards.

In a cell with no wrap setting, the editor behaves as it always has: it grows sideways and stays on one line.

Home / End and the up/down arrows work on the visual line, so they move to the start or end of the wrapped line you are on.

On commit, if the row is still on automatic sizing, its height is refitted to the content — growing with added line breaks and shrinking when they go away. A row whose height was set by hand keeps that height.

Japanese input (IME)

Both WinForms and WPF support IME.

The composition string is displayed inside the cell
Starting Japanese input on a cell that is not being edited opens the editor and continues the composition there

The Avalonia build relies on each platform’s own IME implementation.

Formula highlighting

While editing input that begins with =, the cells and ranges it references are color-coded — the same behaviour as V4’s 4.6 line.

Preventing editing

A cell type returning AllowsTextEditing => false cannot be typed into (a checkbox, for instance). See Custom Cell Types.

Without a license applied, editing is disabled on all three controls. Display, scrolling, printing and export all keep working (Applying a License Key).

History

Committing an edit records it in the history. Merely opening the editor without committing does not.