What's the deal with Databinder.Eval and Container.DataItem?

The databinding expression <%# some expression %> is evaluated in the language of the page (VB, C#, etc.)  This can have a big impact on the current syntax, so be very careful when you are looking at docs for the language you are using.

 

Container.DataItem is a runtime alias for the DataItem for this specific item in the bound list.  For a grid which displays 10 rows of data, this is one row from the datasource.  The actual type of DataItem is determined by the type of the datasource.  For example, if the datasource is a Dataview, the type of DataItem is DataRowView.  If the type of the datasource is an array of strings, the type of DataItem is String.  If the datasource is a collection of strongly-typed objects (for example "Employees" objects), the type of DataItem is Employees.

 

Each of these cases requires a slightly different databinding expression, with further differences between VB and C#.  In every case, you want the databinding expression to produce a string that can be displayed in the page.

 

Here are some examples:

 

Array of Strings:

VB/C# <%# Container.DataItem %>

 

Field from DataView:

VB      <%# Container.DataItem("EmployeeName") %>

C#      <%# ((DataRowView)Container.DataItem)["EmployeeName"] %>

 

Property from a collection of objects:

VB      <%# Container.DataItem.CustomerName %>

C#      <%# ((Customer)Container.DataItem).CustomerName %>

 

Non-String property from a collection of objects:

VB      <%# CStr(Container.DataItem.CustomerID) %>

C#      <%# ((Customer)Container.DataItem).CustomerID.ToString() %>

 

 

As you can see the syntax is tricky, especially for C#, which requires explicit casting. So we've provided a DataBinder.Eval() helper method that figures out the syntax for you and formats the result as a string. It's really convenient, with a couple of caveats: it's late bound (uses reflection at runtime to figure out the data types), and it only supports basic data types in the fields: string, int, datetime, etc.

   

DataBinder.Eval takes 2 or 3 arguments.  The first arg is the data object to bind to.  In the case of DataGrid, DataList and Repeater, Container.DataItem is the single row.  The second arg the string name of the field from the data object you which to display.  DataBinder.Eval uses these two pieces of information to work out the rest of the expression syntax.

 

An optional third argument is a .NET formatting string.  DataBinder.Eval will handle a single replacement for {0} only.  So the example below:

 

<a href='<%# "default.aspx?CategoryId=" + Cstr(Databinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "ID"))%>'>


could be simplified to:


<a href='<%#  Databinder.Eval(Container.DataItem,"ID","default.aspx?CategoryId={0}" ) %>'>

 

Wrapping DataBinder.Eval in CStr() is unnecessary as the compiler will wrap the statement with a Convert.ToString like this:

control1.SetDataBoundString(0, Convert.ToString(DataBinder.Eval(item1.DataItem, "ID")));

 

Best of all, the Databinder.Eval syntax is the same for VB and C#.
 

Susan Warren
11/30/2000 1:48:00 PM

Comments:
Scott Galloway
Worth mentioning the performance cost of this, in my own tests I've found around 20% performance loss in using DataBinder.Eval versus explicit casting. This can make a difference when binding large sets. My original post on this is here: http://www.mostlylucid.co.uk/archive/2003/12/09/664.aspx

  • 0
    点赞
  • 0
    收藏
    觉得还不错? 一键收藏
  • 0
    评论

“相关推荐”对你有帮助么?

  • 非常没帮助
  • 没帮助
  • 一般
  • 有帮助
  • 非常有帮助
提交
评论
添加红包

请填写红包祝福语或标题

红包个数最小为10个

红包金额最低5元

当前余额3.43前往充值 >
需支付:10.00
成就一亿技术人!
领取后你会自动成为博主和红包主的粉丝 规则
hope_wisdom
发出的红包
实付
使用余额支付
点击重新获取
扫码支付
钱包余额 0

抵扣说明:

1.余额是钱包充值的虚拟货币,按照1:1的比例进行支付金额的抵扣。
2.余额无法直接购买下载,可以购买VIP、付费专栏及课程。

余额充值