use VALUE AS cell color

Question

Okay I researched this as much as possible before I posted so I hope this is not a repost but here goes...

I made a datatable, lets say it has a coulmn called "cartype" , then I added a column called "color"

well, I bound a gridview what I want to do is use a label, and have its FORECOLOR be the VALUE in the column "color".

I tried this:

<asp:BoundField DataField="cartype" HeaderText="Cars"  ItemStyle-Width="130" ItemStyle-ForeColor='<% Eval("Color") %>' />

but I got an error about

"Cannot create an object of type System.drawing.color from its string representation '<%Eval("color")%>' for the 'ForeColor' Property.

I also tried adding a template field and got the same result.

I was trying not to use the rowdatabound event and use .Cells[3] , because then when I add columns, it's going to change the cell number, and switch up everything! I was hoping I could make it cleaner by binding the color with the data.

Answer 1

Okay I ended up doing this. sad :(

At the VERY END of my grid I added an ASP:Hidden template field

<asp:TemplateField>
  <ItemTemplate>
   <asp:HiddenField ID="hColor" runat="server" Value='<%# Eval("Color") %>'/>
  </ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>

Then in the RowDataBoundEvent I did this

Dim hid As HiddenField
hid = e.Row.FindControl("hColor")
If (hid.Value <> Nothing) Then
   e.Row.Cells(1).ForeColor = System.Drawing.ColorTranslator.FromHtml("#" + hid.Value)
End If

PS. I heart C#. Dont like VB.NET. lol :)

Answer 2

Have you tried:

 ForeColor='<%# System.Drawing.Color.FromName(Eval("Color")) %>'

?