DataColumn Name from DataRow (not DataTable)

Question

I need to iterate the columnname and column datatype from a specific row. All of the examples I have seen have iterated an entire datatable. I want to pass a single row to a function to do a bunch of conditional processing. I want to separate the conditional processing for ease of readability.

This is what I have:

private void doMore(DataRow dr) {     foreach (DataColumn c in dr.ItemArray)  //loop through the columns.      {         MessageBox.Show(c.ColumnName.ToString());     } } 

The error returned is

System.InvalidCastException: Unable to cast object of type 'System.String' to type 'System.Data.DataColumn'.

How would I get the column name from the row or do I have no choice and must pass the entire datatable to the function?

Answer 1

You would still need to go through the DataTable class. But you can do so using your DataRow instance by using the Table property.

foreach (DataColumn c in dr.Table.Columns)  //loop through the columns.  {     MessageBox.Show(c.ColumnName); } 

Answer 2

You can make it easier in your code (if you're doing this a lot anyway) by using an extension on the DataRow object, like:

static class Extensions {     public static string GetColumn(this DataRow Row, int Ordinal)     {         return Row.Table.Columns[Ordinal].ColumnName;     } } 

Then call it using:

string MyColumnName = MyRow.GetColumn(5);