Question

I have a gridview with autogenerated columns that I set programmatically I want to format the column width. This is my code for my gridview in code behind…

If Not Page.IsPostBack Then
    Dim budgetTable As New DataTable("Budgets")

    budgetTable.Columns.Add("Approval Date", GetType(Date))
    budgetTable.Columns.Add("Total Amount", GetType(String))
    budgetTable.Columns.Add("Comments", GetType(String))
    budgetTable.Columns.Add("Initials", GetType(String))

    Try
        For i As Integer = 0 To 0
            Dim tableRow As DataRow = budgetTable.NewRow()
            tableRow("Approval Date") = Date.Today
            tableRow("Total Amount") = ""
            tableRow("Comments") = ""
            tableRow("Initials") = ""
            budgetTable.Rows.Add (tableRow)
        Next
        Session("BudgetsTable") = budgetTable
        BindData()
    Catch ex As Exception

    End Try
End If

And this is the gridview on the html side:

<asp:GridView ID="gvOLIAdj" runat="server" CssClass="td8" CellPadding="4" ForeColor="#333333" PageSize="2" ViewStateMode="Enabled">
    <AlternatingRowStyle BackColor="White" ForeColor="#284775" />

    <Columns>
        <asp:CommandField EditText="Add" ShowEditButton="True" />
    </Columns>

    <EditRowStyle BackColor="#999999" />
    <FooterStyle BackColor="#003399" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />
    <HeaderStyle BackColor="#003399" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />
    <RowStyle BackColor="#F7F6F3" ForeColor="#333333" />
    <SelectedRowStyle BackColor="#E2DED6" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="#333333" />
    <SortedAscendingCellStyle BackColor="#E9E7E2" />
    <SortedAscendingHeaderStyle BackColor="#506C8C" />
    <SortedDescendingCellStyle BackColor="#FFFDF8" />
    <SortedDescendingHeaderStyle BackColor="#6F8DAE" />
</asp:GridView>

Answer 1

— EDIT —

(removed old contents after reading comments from OP, since that won’t help)

Try using the RowDataBound event to set the widths (or any other properties).

UNTESTED Code:

Protected Sub gvOLIAdj_RowDataBound(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Web.UI.WebControls.GridViewRowEventArgs) Handles gvOLIAdj.RowDataBound
    If (e.Row.RowType = DataControlRowType.Header) Then
        e.Row.Cells(0).Width = 100  '100 pixels
        e.Row.Cells(1).Width = 50
        e.Row.Cells(2).Width = 200
        e.Row.Cells(3).Width = 150
    End If
End Sub

If the above doesn’t work, try setting it for e.Row.RowType = DataControlRowType.DataRow.