Question

In C# how do I still show the headers of a gridview, even with the data source is empty.

I am not auto generating the columns as they are all predefined.

Currently what I am doing is the following.

Get a DataTable back from a stored procedure, then set the DataSource of the gridview, and then call DataBind().

This works fine when I have data, but when no rows are returned then I just get a blank spot where the grid should be.

Edit: Thanks all for the .NET 4+ property. I asked this back in the .NET 3.5 days. This is much easier now. 🙂

Answer 1

ASP.Net 4.0 added the boolean ShowHeaderWhenEmpty property.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.gridview.showheaderwhenempty.aspx

---

<asp:GridView runat="server" ID="GridView1" ShowHeaderWhenEmpty="true" AutoGenerateColumns="false">
    <Columns>
        <asp:BoundField HeaderText="First Name" DataField="FirstName" />
        <asp:BoundField HeaderText="Last Name" DataField="LastName" />
    </Columns>
</asp:GridView>

Note: the headers will not appear unless DataBind() is called with something other than null.

GridView1.DataSource = New List(Of String)
GridView1.DataBind()