Question

I am trying to create a user friendly drop down using the following columns:

LNAME, FNAME, USERID

Here is my SelectCommand:

SELECT ISNULL(LNAME,'') + ', ' + ISNULL(FNAME,'') + ' (' + ISNULL(USERID,'') + ') ' AS FullName FROM USER ORDER BY FullName

The result is:

LNAME, FNAME (USERID)

This is what I want. I am trying to set the DataValueField to the USERID for use in SelectedIndexChanged. Right now it only works when DataValueField is set to FullName. I receive the following error when setting it to USERID:

DataBinding: ‘System.Data.DataRowView’ does not contain a property
with the name ‘USERID’.

I need to use the USERID for the next step. Is there a way to extract USERID from the alias in this SELECT statement?

Answer 1

Change your SQL to separate value and label (text)

SELECT
   USERID, -- what the user actually selects
   ISNULL(LNAME,'') + ', ' + ISNULL(FNAME,'') + ' (' + ISNULL(USERID,'') + ') '
           AS FullName --what user sees and appears to SELECT
FROM
   USER
ORDER BY
   FullName

Then you bind

• DataValueField to USERID
• DataTextField to Fullname

The example on MSDN shows this: the value has no spaces eg “Dark Khaki” vs “DarkKhaki”