Question

I am working on exporting data and right now some fields export the value, instead of the text. So I am saving the object that returns the text and value to a list box and matching it to the value in the listbox from the object like so:

MaterialDB materials = new MaterialDB();
DropDownList listBoxMaterials = new DropDownList();
listBoxMaterials.DataSource = materials.GetItems(ModuleId, TabId);
listBoxMaterials.DataBind();

string materialString = "";


foreach (ListItem i in listBoxMaterials.Items)
{
    if (i.Value == row["MaterialTypeID"].ToString())
    {
        materialString = i.Text;
    }
}

When I use this for the i.Value it always returns “System.Data.DataRowView” instead of the actual value. I’m doing this all in code behind. Anyway around this to get it to work?

Thanks!

Answer 1

You need to set the DataTextField and DataValueField properties of the DropDownList. Example:

MaterialDB materials = new MaterialDB();
DropDownList listBoxMaterials = new DropDownList();
listBoxMaterials.DataSource = materials.GetItems(ModuleId, TabId);
listBoxMaterials.DataTextField = "MaterialName";
listBoxMaterials.DataTextValue = "MaterialID";
listBoxMaterials.DataBind();

string materialString = "";    

foreach (ListItem i in listBoxMaterials.Items)
{
    if (i.Value == row["MaterialTypeID"].ToString())
    {
        materialString = i.Text;
    }
}