Question

I want to create a table format with two columns where each row will have a ProductTitle and its corresponding URL.

I am using the following code which gives the info in table format. I displays entire anchor tag in second column.

But i want only the Text to be displayed as link in second column. On click of which it should open the URL page.

DataTable dt = new DataTable();

dt.Columns.Add("ProductTitle");
dt.Columns.Add("Link");

DataRow dr = dt.NewRow();
dr["ProductTitle"] = "GOOGLE";
dr["Link"] = "<" + "a href=\"" + "http://www.google.com" + "\">Google" + "</a>";
dt.Rows.Add(dr);

Gridview1.DataSource = dt;
Gridview1.DataBind();

Could anyone suggest.

Answer 1

You could modify the .aspx file as follows:

    ...
    <asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="false">
        <Columns>
            <asp:BoundField DataField="ProductTitle" HeaderText="Product Title" />
            <asp:BoundField DataField="Link" HtmlEncode="false" HeaderText="Link" />
        </Columns>
    </asp:GridView>
    ...

So, you should disable the automatic column generation by setting AutoGenerateColumns="false" and format the Columns section of the GridView. Please note the key element here for the link rendering, which is the HtmlEncode="false" attribute. You can also set everything in the code behind file:

    GridView1.AutoGenerateColumns = false;

    var productTitleField=new BoundField();
    productTitleField.DataField="ProductTitle";
    productTitleField.HeaderText="Product Title";

    var linkField=new BoundField();
    linkField.DataField="Link";
    linkField.HeaderText="Link";
    linkField.HtmlEncode=false;

    GridView1.Columns.Add(productTitleField);
    GridView1.Columns.Add(linkField);