Question

I have a gridview with sqldatasource, etc. For the grid, I also have
a search textbox. If the user needs to filter the records, I want to
dynamically adjust the SELECT statement for the SqlDataSource using a sql procedure with a parametre can take the value from the textbox . I like
all the automatic capabilities for paging, sorting, etc., so I don’t
want to just bind the old way.

Any clues?

thanks,

 <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div>

        <asp:SqlDataSource ID="SqlDataSource1" runat="server" 
            ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:NorthwindConnectionString %>" 
            SelectCommand="SelectCategorie" SelectCommandType="StoredProcedure">
            <SelectParameters>
                <asp:ControlParameter ControlID="TextBox1" Name="CategorieName" 
                    PropertyName="Text" Type="String" />
            </SelectParameters>
        </asp:SqlDataSource>
        <asp:SqlDataSource ID="SqlDataSource3" runat="server" 
            ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:NorthwindConnectionString %>" 
            SelectCommand="SELECT [ProductName], [ProductID] FROM [Alphabetical list of products]">
        </asp:SqlDataSource>
        <br />
        <br />
        <asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
        <br />
        <asp:Button ID="Button3" runat="server" Text="Button" />
        <br />
        <br />
        <asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" runat="server" 
            DataSourceID="SqlDataSource3" DataTextField="ProductName" 
            DataValueField="ProductName">
        </asp:DropDownList>
        <br />
        <br />
                <asp:Button ID="Button2" runat="server" Text="Change the datasource" />
        <br />
        <br />
                <asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" 
                    DataKeyNames="ProductID" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1">
                    <Columns>
                        <asp:BoundField DataField="ProductID" HeaderText="ProductID" 
                            InsertVisible="False" ReadOnly="True" SortExpression="ProductID" 
                            DataFormatString="[Yassine {0}]" />
                        <asp:BoundField DataField="ProductName" HeaderText="ProductName" 
                            SortExpression="ProductName" />
                        <asp:BoundField DataField="SupplierID" HeaderText="SupplierID" 
                            SortExpression="SupplierID" />
                        <asp:BoundField DataField="CategoryID" HeaderText="CategoryID" 
                            SortExpression="CategoryID" />
                        <asp:BoundField DataField="CategoryName" HeaderText="CategoryName" 
                            SortExpression="CategoryName" />
                        <asp:BoundField DataField="Description" HeaderText="Description" 
                            SortExpression="Description" />
                        <asp:BoundField DataField="QuantityPerUnit" HeaderText="QuantityPerUnit" 
                            SortExpression="QuantityPerUnit" />
                        <asp:BoundField DataField="UnitPrice" HeaderText="UnitPrice" 
                            SortExpression="UnitPrice" />
                        <asp:BoundField DataField="UnitsInStock" HeaderText="UnitsInStock" 
                            SortExpression="UnitsInStock" />
                        <asp:BoundField DataField="UnitsOnOrder" HeaderText="UnitsOnOrder" 
                            SortExpression="UnitsOnOrder" />
                        <asp:BoundField DataField="ReorderLevel" HeaderText="ReorderLevel" 
                            SortExpression="ReorderLevel" />
                        <asp:CheckBoxField DataField="Discontinued" HeaderText="Discontinued" 
                            SortExpression="Discontinued" />
                    </Columns>
                </asp:GridView>
        <br />
        <br />

    </div>
    </form>

and the code behind the scene :

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Button2_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
        SqlDataSource1.SelectCommand = "SelectCategorieParDescription"
        SqlDataSource1.SelectParameters.Add("@ProductName", DropDownList1.DataValueField)
    End Sub
End Class

and this is the erreur i got :

Procedure or function SelectCategorieParDescription has too many arguments specified

Answer 1

We use a similar approach on what you want to do. The hard way is the following (you can see an article about this here:

1. Create a grammar for your search syntax
2. Create a parser for that grammar
3. Create an interpreter along with the parser that will convert your search syntax into a SQL (the WHERE part)
4. Create a stored procedure that can take this whereSql string and concatenate with the complete query and call EXEC(@sqlQuery)

However, all this might take you a while, another option would be to restraint your search capabilities to single strings. Example:

1. Say you have your query with the possibility to search on 2 columns: name, socsecNumber
2. Whenever you read the string john you convert this to:
   name like ‘%john%’ or (convert socsecNumber to string) like ‘%john%’
3. Up to you to use the % all the time or maybe only when the user’s input is something like: joh*

4. The stored procedure receiving the where query is a little bit like this:

   ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[usp_SearchForObjectsForDashboard]
       @searchTerm as varchar(250)
   BEGIN
       ...
       SET @sql = 'SELECT ...
           ...
           WHERE someConditionOfYourOwn = whatever
            AND ' + @searchTerm
   
       EXEC(@sql) 
   END
   

Hope it helps