Question

If I have the gridview autogenerate columns, then the table adds the correct columns, but I added drop down headers to the table and don’t want the columns to be autogenerated. When I add the rows to the datatable and bind it to the gridview, nothing shows up.

This is my gridview code:

    <asp:GridView ID="GridView3" runat="server" CellPadding="3"
        ForeColor="#333333" GridLines="None"
        AllowSorting="True" SortedAscendingHeaderStyle-CssClass="sortasc-header" 
        SortedDescendingHeaderStyle-CssClass="sortdesc-header"
        AllowPaging="True" PageSize="17" PagerSettings-Mode="NextPreviousFirstLast" 
        ShowHeaderWhenEmpty="True" PagerStyle-Font-Names="WebDings" PagerStyle-Font-     Size="Medium"
        PagerSettings-FirstPageText=" 7 " PagerSettings-PreviousPageText=" 3 " 
        PagerSettings-NextPageText=" 4 " PagerSettings-LastPageText=" 8 " 
          Font-Size="Small" onpageindexchanging="GridView3_PageIndexChanging" 
          onsorting="GridView3_Sorting" AutoGenerateColumns="False">

        <AlternatingRowStyle BackColor="White" ForeColor="#333333" />
         <Columns>
             <asp:BoundField HeaderText="Date" />

             <asp:BoundField HeaderText="Time" />

            <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Type">
                <HeaderTemplate>
                    <asp:DropDownList ID="TypeList" runat="server" Height="21px" Width="134px" 
                    DataSourceId="dsWarningType"
                    DataTextValue="Name" DataValueField="Name">
                    </asp:DropDownList>
                 </HeaderTemplate>
             </asp:TemplateField>

                  <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Process">
             <HeaderTemplate>
                  <asp:DropDownList ID="Process" runat="server" Height="21px" Width="134px" 
                   >
                  </asp:DropDownList>
             </HeaderTemplate>
             </asp:TemplateField>

                   <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Index">
             <HeaderTemplate>
                  <asp:DropDownList ID="Index" runat="server" Height="21px" Width="134px" 
                   >
                  </asp:DropDownList>
             </HeaderTemplate>
             </asp:TemplateField>

             <asp:BoundField HeaderText="Body" />

         </Columns>
        <EditRowStyle BackColor="#999999" />
        <FooterStyle BackColor="#5D7B9D" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />
        <HeaderStyle BackColor="#5D7B9D" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />                <PagerSettings FirstPageText=" 7 " LastPageText=" 8 " Mode="NextPreviousFirstLast" NextPageText=" 4 " PreviousPageText=" 3 "></PagerSettings>
        <PagerStyle BackColor="#5D7B9D" ForeColor="White" HorizontalAlign="Center" />
        <RowStyle BackColor="#DCE2E8" ForeColor="#333333" />
        <SelectedRowStyle BackColor="#E2DED6" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="#333333" />
<SortedAscendingHeaderStyle CssClass="sortasc-header"></SortedAscendingHeaderStyle>

<SortedDescendingHeaderStyle CssClass="sortdesc-header"></SortedDescendingHeaderStyle>
      </asp:GridView> 

I declare the datatable and the appropriate columns. After I fill in the DataTable manually, I am simply bind it:

dt = new DataTable();

dt.Columns.Add("Date");
dt.Columns.Add("Time");
dt.Columns.Add("Type");
dt.Columns.Add("Process");
dt.Columns.Add("Index");
dt.Columns.Add("Body");
//Manually fill in data....
...

GridView3.DataSource = dt;
GridView3.DataBind();

Answer 1

You need to set the DataField-property of you bound fields.

 <asp:BoundField HeaderText="Date" DataField="Date" />

Have a look at this example:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa479342.aspx