Is it possible to hide a column in an asp:repeater?

Question

I need to hide a column in an asp:repeater. Preferably, hide them server side not just in HTML via CSS. The repeater has an ID, but I am having difficulty finding the table that it owns within the debugger. Considering how a repeater works I'm not sure its even possible. I gave the HTML table an ID and set it to runat="server", but it blew up with error

Unexpected end of file looking for tag.

How can I do it? Do I need to switch to a gridview? I could probably do this a lot easier with a gridview.

<asp:repeater id="repeaterId" runat="server">
                    <ItemTemplate>
                        <tr>
                            <td><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "col1")%></td>
                            <td nowrap="nowrap" align="left"><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "col2")%></font></td>                          
                        </tr>
                    </ItemTemplate>
                    <AlternatingItemTemplate>                                                   <tr>
                            <td><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "col1")%></td>
                            <td nowrap="nowrap" align="left"><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "col2")%></td> 
                    </AlternatingItemTemplate>
                    <HeaderTemplate>
                        <table id="rPhysicalTable" class="cssTable">
                            <tr class="aClass">
                                <th>col1</th>
                                <th>col2</th>   
                            </tr>
                    </HeaderTemplate>
                    <FooterTemplate>
                        </table>
                    </FooterTemplate>
                </asp:repeater>

Answer 1

We can hide the column of a html table using the repeaters ItemDataBound event

To do this, we specify the id for the table cells to be hidden and tag the cell as runat="server"

<asp:repeater id="repeaterId" runat="server">
                    <ItemTemplate>
                        <tr>
                            <td id="tdhideItem" runat="server"><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "col1")%></td>
                            <td nowrap="nowrap" align="left"><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "col2")%></font></td>                          
                        </tr>
                    </ItemTemplate>
                    <AlternatingItemTemplate>                                                   <tr>
                            <td id="tdhideAltItem" runat="server"><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "col1")%></td>
                            <td nowrap="nowrap" align="left"><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "col2")%></td> 
                    </AlternatingItemTemplate>
                    <HeaderTemplate>
                        <table id="rPhysicalTable" class="cssTable">
                            <tr class="aClass">
                                <th id="thhideHeader" runat="server">col1</th>
                                <th>col2</th>   
                            </tr>
                    </HeaderTemplate>
                    <FooterTemplate>
                        </table>
                    </FooterTemplate>
                </asp:repeater>

The following vb.net code is specified as code behind

  Protected Sub repeaterId_ItemDataBound(sender As Object, e As System.Web.UI.WebControls.RepeaterItemEventArgs) Handles repeaterId.ItemDataBound

         If e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.Item  Then
        DirectCast(e.Item.FindControl("tdhideItem"), HtmlTableCell).Visible = False    
        End If

         If e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.AlternatingItem
        Then
        DirectCast(e.Item.FindControl("tdhideAltItem"), HtmlTableCell).Visible = False    
        End If

      If e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.Header Then
        DirectCast(e.Item.FindControl("thhideHeader"), HtmlTableCell).Visible = False    
        End If
        End Sub

In the above code the first column of the table "col1" is set to be hidden

Answer 2

Following Tim Schmelter's advice I switched to a gridview. This way I can use

gridviewObj.Columns[index].Visible = false;

And thus avoid hiding multiple <td> in a repeater.