Question

I would like store large amounts of data (text) in a table with six columns and up to ten thousand rows.

I will be building the table programatically.
(Meaning I want to be able to add rows as I go)

Is datatable my best option? I’m planning to bind it to a Telerik Grid Control for ASP.NET

I am wondering I am better off going in with another type of class I do not know about.

I will be using the controls ability to sort and page, but I don’t know if that matters too much on the underlying object.

Retrieval, then storage then programmer time should be considered for when I say efficiency.

Answer 1

I would create a class with properties that represent those six rows and then use it in a List. Very quickly:

public class Result
{
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public double Score { get; set; }
    public string Summary { get; set; }
    // etc.

    public Result(string title, double score, string summary)
    {
        Title = title;
        Score = score;
        Summary = summary;
    }

    public Result() { }
}

public class Test
{
    public static IList<Result> GetResults()
    {
        List<Result> results = new List<Result>();

        results.Add(new Result("First result", 0.914, "This is the summary"));
        results.Add(new Result("Second result", 0.783, "More summary...."));
        results.Add(new Result { Title = "Third", Score = 0.54, Summary = "Anonymous I am..." });
        // etc
        return results;
    }
}

You can then enumerate the List collection or bind it to a databound control or use it with LINQ etc.