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Displaying Data using ASP.NET 2.0 DataList and C#
This tutorial will show you how to display data using the .NET DataList Control, ASP.NET 2.0 and C#.NET
The DataList control is an easy to use tool similiar to the Repeater control.
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First, you will need to import the System.Data.SqlClient namespace.
The System.Data.SqlClient namespace contains the SqlCommand and SqlConnection classes that we need in order to connect to our database and to send an SQL command to it.
| using System.Data.SqlClient; |
We'll put our code in the Page_Load() event.
When the Page_Load() event fires, a new SqlCommand object is instantiated with our connection string and our command.
Afterwards, we will attempt to connect using the Open() method of our cmd.Connection object. Once it is connected we will attempt to execute the command we specified earlier (in this example "SELECT TOP 5 firstname,lastname,hiredate FROM EMPLOYEES" in the Northwind db).
If all goes well, we will have the results of our SQL query assigned to the dlExample's DataSource property. Now all we have to do is call the DataBind() method of our dlExample to bind the data to the control. The data is now ready to be displayed.
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try {
SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("SELECT TOP 5 firstname,lastname,hiredate FROM EMPLOYEES", new SqlConnection("Server=localhost;Database=Northwind;Trusted_Connection=True;"));
cmd.Connection.Open();
dlExample.DataSource = cmd.ExecuteReader();
dlExample.DataBind();
cmd.Connection.Close();
cmd.Connection.Dispose(); } catch (Exception ex) {
lblStatus.Text = ex.Message; } |
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We have to add a few tags on the front end of the .aspx page to place where we want the DataList control to display its bound data. Inside of the main DataList tag, we use the <HeaderTemplate> tag to specify the column titles for our repeated data and the <ItemTemplate> tag to specify what HTML tags can go around that repeated data (in this case, <td> tags surround each item). So, the front end .aspx page looks something like this:
<td align="center" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<asp:DataList ID="dlExample" runat="server" CssClass="basix" GridLines="Both">
<HeaderTemplate>
<td>First Name</td>
<td>Last Name</td>
<td>Hire Date</td>
</HeaderTemplate>
<ItemTemplate>
<td><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem,"firstname") %></td>
<td><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem,"lastname") %></td>
<td><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem,"hiredate") %></td>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:DataList>
<asp:label ID="lblStatus" runat="server"></asp:label></td> |
The flow for the code behind page is as follows.
using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("SELECT TOP 5 firstname,lastname,hiredate FROM EMPLOYEES", new SqlConnection("Server=localhost;Database=Northwind;Trusted_Connection=True;")); try {
cmd.Connection.Open();
dlExample.DataSource = cmd.ExecuteReader();
dlExample.DataBind();
cmd.Connection.Close();
cmd.Connection.Dispose(); } catch (Exception ex) {
lblStatus.Text = ex.Message; } } |
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