How to get the cell value by column name not by index in GridView in asp.net

Question

I am having a gridview in asp.net and now I want the cell value by the column name but not by the cell index.

How would be it possible by retrieving the cell value by the cell column name

Answer 1

GridView does not act as column names, as that's it's datasource property to know those things.

If you still need to know the index given a column name, then you can create a helper method to do this as the gridview Header normally contains this information.

int GetColumnIndexByName(GridViewRow row, string columnName) {     int columnIndex = 0;     foreach (DataControlFieldCell cell in row.Cells)     {         if (cell.ContainingField is BoundField)             if (((BoundField)cell.ContainingField).DataField.Equals(columnName))                 break;         columnIndex++; // keep adding 1 while we don't have the correct name     }     return columnIndex; } 

remember that the code above will use a BoundField... then use it like:

protected void GridView_RowDataBound(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e) {     if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.DataRow)     {         int index = GetColumnIndexByName(e.Row, "myDataField");         string columnValue = e.Row.Cells[index].Text;     } } 

I would strongly suggest that you use the TemplateField to have your own controls, then it's easier to grab those controls like:

<asp:GridView ID="gv" runat="server">     <Columns>         <asp:TemplateField>             <ItemTemplate>                 <asp:Label ID="lblName" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("Name") %>' />             </ItemTemplate>         </asp:TemplateField>     </Columns> </asp:GridView> 

and then use

string columnValue = ((Label)e.Row.FindControl("lblName")).Text;