Question

Basically I am populating a gridview from a sql table. But the problem is that this data in a particular column, needs to sometimes be displayed as a dropdownlist, sometimes a textbox.

e.g. ColA data will always be in Label format. But ColB can be dropdown list or textbox.

ColA   |   ColB
-----------------
label  |  ddlist    
label  |  textbox    
label  |  ddlist

How can I dynamically set the type for each ColB row??
I thought maybe it could be done using OnRowDatabound, but cant seem to find a way? Is this possible?

Answer 1

Try this: Use TemplateField for ColB and put both TextBox and DropdownList

<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="ColB">
    <asp:TextBox runat="server" ID="txtVal" />
    <asp:DropdownList runat="server" ID="drpVal"></asp:DropdownList>
</asp:TemplateField>

In the databound of your gridview do this

void myGridView_RowDataBound(Object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
        TextBox txtVal = (TextBox)e.Row.FindControl("txtVal");
        DropDownList drpVal = (DropDownList)e.Row.FindControl("drpVal");

        if (txtVal != null && drpVal != null)
        {
            if (condition == true)
            {
                txtVal.Text = "Default value";
                drpVal.Visible = false;
            }
            else
            {
                drpVal.Items.Add("Item1");
                drpVal.Items.Add("Item2");
                drpVal.Items.Add("Item3");
                txtVal.Visible = false;
            }
        }
}