title: Winforms .net 2.0: binding a textbox to a parent property
body: <p>I've got a strongly typed dset, w/two datatables: Parent and Child, w/a relation linking them in the way you'd expect (e.g. parent-has-many-children).</p>
  
  <p>On my Child Detail form, I show lots of info on the current child, w/binding calls like so:</p>
  
  <pre><code>me.txtBirthDate.DataBindings.add(New Windows.Forms.Binding("Text", MyDataset, "Child.Birthdate"))
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But I would also like to show some info on the child's parent--say, the parent's name.  I have tried:</p>
  
  <pre><code>me.txtParentName.DataBindings.add(New Windows.Forms.Binding("Text", MyDataset, "Child.Parent.Name"))
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and</p>
  
  <pre><code>me.txtParentName.DataBindings.add(New Windows.Forms.Binding("Text", MyDataset, "Parent.Name"))
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But these both result in a blank text box.</p>
  
  <p>I can of course put the parent properties directly on the Child DataTable &amp; fill them w/the results of a join between the underlying db tables, but I'd like to avoid that if it's possible (my real app involves just a few Parents each w/many many Children &amp; I'd like not to be moving so much unnecessary data).</p>
  
  <p>Is that possible?</p>
  
  <p>Many thanks!</p>
  
  <p>-Roy</p>