Question

How do i stop the header template of a repeater from displaying when there are no items in the datasource

            <asp:Repeater ID="TabsRepeater" runat="server" DataSource='<%#Eval("OrderedChildNodes") %>'>
                <HeaderTemplate>
                    <ul class="child">
                </HeaderTemplate>
                <ItemTemplate>

the repeater is nested in another repeater control so i can’t check before databinding.

Answer 1

You could also make the markup conditional, see example below (untested).

<asp:Repeater ID="TabsRepeater" runat="server" DataSource='<%#Eval("OrderedChildNodes") %>'>
                <HeaderTemplate>
            <% if (  ((yourType)Eval("OrderedChildNodes")).Count > 0 ) %>
                    <ul class="child">
                </HeaderTemplate>
                <ItemTemplate>