Implementing Syncfusion WPF PivotGrid

The Syncfusion WPF PivotGrid is a powerful cell-oriented, extensible grid control that simulates Microsoft Excel's pivot table feature. It pivots, summarizes, and groups relational data to organize it in a cross-tabulated form, ideal for financial domains and business data analysis.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to:

• Implement pivot tables in WPF applications for data analysis
• Organize and summarize large datasets in cross-tabulated format
• Configure pivot rows, columns, and calculations for multi-dimensional data views
• Enable interactive data exploration with grouping bar and field list
• Create business intelligence dashboards with pivot analysis
• Add filtering and sorting to pivot data
• Implement custom calculations and expression fields
• Export or print pivot grid data
• Build financial reports with dynamic data summarization
• Enable drag-and-drop pivoting for end-user flexibility

Component Overview

The PivotGrid control provides comprehensive pivot table functionality:

• Data Pivoting: Organize data by rows, columns, and values
• Interactive UI: Grouping bar, field list, schema designer, value chooser
• Data Operations: Filtering, sorting (including multi-column and by values)
• Calculations: Built-in summary types, custom calculations, expression fields
• Editing: Cell-level editing and updating
• Customization: Context menus, layout options, freeze headers
• Performance: Virtualization and asynchronous data loading
• Export/Import: Data export, print support, state serialization

Documentation and Navigation Guide

Getting Started

📄 Read: references/getting-started.md

• Installation and assembly references
• Adding PivotGrid through Designer, XAML, or code-behind
• License configuration
• Basic PivotGrid setup and first render
• Minimal working example

Data Binding

📄 Read: references/data-binding.md

• Binding to List collections
• Binding to DataTable and DataView
• Asynchronous data loading for large datasets
• ItemSource configuration patterns
• Data source best practices

Core Concepts: PivotItems and Calculations

📄 Read: references/pivot-items-and-calculations.md

• Understanding PivotItem (rows and columns)
• PivotComputationInfo for value fields
• Summary types (Count, Sum, Average, Min, Max, etc.)
• FieldHeader, FieldMappingName, TotalHeader properties
• Format strings for calculations
• Basic calculation examples

Filtering

📄 Read: references/filtering.md

• FilterExpression class overview
• Defining filters in XAML and code-behind
• Column filtering
• Excel-like filtering UI
• Multiple filter conditions
• Filter expression syntax

Sorting

📄 Read: references/sorting.md

• Default sorting behavior
• Custom comparers for sort logic
• Column sorting
• Multi-column sorting
• Sorting by values
• Sorting events and customization

Grouping Bar

📄 Read: references/grouping-bar.md

• Enabling and configuring grouping bar
• Defining grouping bar properties
• Drag-and-drop pivoting functionality
• Grouping bar context menu
• Customization and styling

Field List and Designer

📄 Read: references/field-list-and-designer.md

• PivotGrid Field List
• PivotSchemaDesigner for advanced configuration
• Binding PivotSchemaDesigner to PivotGrid
• Pivot Value Chooser
• Setting captions in field list
• Field management and customization

Custom Calculations

📄 Read: references/custom-calculations.md

• Custom calculation overview
• Runtime calculated fields
• Runtime custom summaries
• Expression fields for formulas
• Advanced calculation patterns
• Custom summary implementations

Editing and Updating

📄 Read: references/editing-and-updating.md

• Enabling cell editing
• Updating cell values
• Edit events and validation
• Data modification patterns

Context Menus

📄 Read: references/context-menus.md

• Main PivotGrid context menu
• Grouping bar context menu
• Header cell context menu
• Customizing menu items
• Menu actions and events

Layout and Display Options

📄 Read: references/layout-and-display.md

• Grid layout configuration
• Freeze headers for fixed row/column headers
• Auto-resizing to fit content
• Restricting row header area resizing
• RowPivotsOnly mode
• Showing calculations as columns
• Show/hide sub-totals and grand totals
• Layout customization patterns

Selection

📄 Read: references/selection.md

• Selection modes
• Cell and range selection
• Selection events
• Programmatic selection

Exporting and Printing

📄 Read: references/exporting-and-printing.md

• Exporting PivotGrid data
• Supported export formats
• Print functionality and print preview
• Export configuration options

Serialization and State Persistence

📄 Read: references/serialization.md

• Serializing PivotGrid configuration
• Deserialization
• State persistence across sessions
• Saving and loading PivotGrid state

Advanced Features

📄 Read: references/advanced-features.md

• Hyperlink cells
• Inner-most computations
• GetRawItem method for raw data access
• Performance improvements with virtualization
• Advanced scenarios and edge cases

Quick Start Example

Basic PivotGrid with Sales Data

XAML:

<Window xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:syncfusion="http://schemas.syncfusion.com/wpf"
        xmlns:local="clr-namespace:YourNamespace"
        Title="PivotGrid Example" Height="600" Width="800">
    <Window.Resources>
        <ObjectDataProvider x:Key="salesData" 
                          ObjectType="{x:Type local:ProductSales}" 
                          MethodName="GetSalesData" />
    </Window.Resources>
    
    <Grid>
        <syncfusion:PivotGridControl Name="pivotGrid" 
                                    ItemSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource salesData}}">
            <!-- Define Pivot Rows -->
            <syncfusion:PivotGridControl.PivotRows>
                <syncfusion:PivotItem FieldHeader="Product" 
                                     FieldMappingName="Product" 
                                     TotalHeader="Total" />
                <syncfusion:PivotItem FieldHeader="Date" 
                                     FieldMappingName="Date" 
                                     TotalHeader="Total" />
            </syncfusion:PivotGridControl.PivotRows>
            
            <!-- Define Pivot Columns -->
            <syncfusion:PivotGridControl.PivotColumns>
                <syncfusion:PivotItem FieldHeader="Country" 
                                     FieldMappingName="Country" 
                                     TotalHeader="Total" />
                <syncfusion:PivotItem FieldHeader="State" 
                                     FieldMappingName="State" 
                                     TotalHeader="Total" />
            </syncfusion:PivotGridControl.PivotColumns>
            
            <!-- Define Calculations -->
            <syncfusion:PivotGridControl.PivotCalculations>
                <syncfusion:PivotComputationInfo CalculationName="Total Amount" 
                                                FieldName="Amount" 
                                                Format="C" 
                                                SummaryType="DoubleTotalSum" />
                <syncfusion:PivotComputationInfo CalculationName="Quantity" 
                                                FieldName="Quantity" 
                                                SummaryType="Count" />
            </syncfusion:PivotGridControl.PivotCalculations>
        </syncfusion:PivotGridControl>
    </Grid>
</Window>

Code-behind (ProductSales.cs):

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class ProductSales
{
    public string Product { get; set; }
    public string Date { get; set; }
    public string Country { get; set; }
    public string State { get; set; }
    public int Quantity { get; set; }
    public double Amount { get; set; }

    public static List<ProductSales> GetSalesData()
    {
        return new List<ProductSales>
        {
            new ProductSales { Product = "Bike", Date = "FY 2005", Country = "Canada", 
                             State = "Alberta", Quantity = 5, Amount = 150000 },
            new ProductSales { Product = "Car", Date = "FY 2006", Country = "Canada", 
                             State = "Ontario", Quantity = 3, Amount = 90000 },
            // Add more data...
        };
    }
}

Common Patterns

Pattern 1: PivotGrid with Grouping Bar

Enable interactive drag-and-drop pivoting:

<syncfusion:PivotGridControl ShowGroupingBar="True">
    <!-- PivotItems and Calculations -->
</syncfusion:PivotGridControl>

Pattern 2: Code-Behind Configuration

Define PivotGrid programmatically:

PivotGridControl pivotGrid = new PivotGridControl();

// Add Pivot Rows
pivotGrid.PivotRows.Add(new PivotItem 
{ 
    FieldHeader = "Product", 
    FieldMappingName = "Product", 
    TotalHeader = "Total" 
});

// Add Pivot Columns
pivotGrid.PivotColumns.Add(new PivotItem 
{ 
    FieldHeader = "Country", 
    FieldMappingName = "Country", 
    TotalHeader = "Total" 
});

// Add Calculations
pivotGrid.PivotCalculations.Add(new PivotComputationInfo 
{ 
    CalculationName = "Total", 
    FieldName = "Amount", 
    Format = "C", 
    SummaryType = SummaryType.DoubleTotalSum 
});

// Set ItemSource
pivotGrid.ItemSource = ProductSales.GetSalesData();

Pattern 3: Filtering Data

Apply filters to narrow data display:

FilterExpression filter = new FilterExpression
{
    DimensionHeader = "Product",
    DimensionName = "Product",
    Name = "ProductFilter",
    Expression = "Product = 'Bike'"
};
pivotGrid.Filters.Add(filter);

Pattern 4: Custom Sorting

Use custom comparers for specific sort logic:

public class ReverseOrderComparer : IComparer
{
    public int Compare(object x, object y)
    {
        return -x.ToString().CompareTo(y.ToString());
    }
}

// Apply to PivotItem
PivotItem item = new PivotItem 
{ 
    FieldHeader = "Product", 
    FieldMappingName = "Product",
    Comparer = new ReverseOrderComparer() 
};

Key Properties

PivotGridControl Properties

• ItemSource: Data source for the pivot grid
• PivotRows: Collection of PivotItems for row dimensions
• PivotColumns: Collection of PivotItems for column dimensions
• PivotCalculations: Collection of PivotComputationInfo for value calculations
• Filters: Collection of FilterExpression for filtering data
• ShowGroupingBar: Enable/disable grouping bar
• ShowFieldList: Enable/disable field list

PivotItem Properties

• FieldHeader: Display header text
• FieldMappingName: Property name to bind from data source
• TotalHeader: Header text for total row/column
• Comparer: Custom comparer for sorting

PivotComputationInfo Properties

• CalculationName: Display name for the calculation
• FieldName: Property name to calculate
• SummaryType: Aggregation type (Count, Sum, Average, etc.)
• Format: Display format string (e.g., "C" for currency)

Common Use Cases

Financial Reporting

Create comprehensive financial reports with multi-dimensional analysis of revenue, expenses, and profitability by product, region, and time period.

Sales Analysis

Analyze sales performance across products, territories, and time periods with dynamic pivoting and drill-down capabilities.

Business Intelligence Dashboards

Build interactive BI dashboards allowing users to explore data through drag-and-drop pivoting with grouping bar and field list.

Inventory Management

Track inventory levels, movements, and costs across warehouses, products, and time periods.

Budget Analysis

Compare budgets vs. actuals across departments, cost centers, and fiscal periods with variance calculations.

Related Components

• PivotSchemaDesigner: Advanced configuration interface
• PivotGrid Field List: Interactive field management
• Grouping Bar: Drag-and-drop pivoting interface

Assembly Requirements

Required assemblies for WPF PivotGrid:

• Syncfusion.Grid.Wpf
• Syncfusion.GridCommon.Wpf
• Syncfusion.Linq.Base
• Syncfusion.PivotAnalysis.Base
• Syncfusion.PivotAnalysis.Wpf
• Syncfusion.Shared.Wpf

NuGet Package Installation

• Important: Use version * (latest available).

Install via NuGet Package Manager:

Install-Package Syncfusion.PivotTable.wpf

Or via .NET CLI:

dotnet add package Syncfusion.PivotTable.wpf

The NuGet package automatically includes all required dependencies.

Namespace Imports

using Syncfusion.Windows.Controls.PivotGrid;
using Syncfusion.PivotAnalysis.Base;

Navigate to the appropriate reference file above for detailed implementation guidance on specific features.