Question

My datasource has an Rating dataItem contains an integer from 0 to 5. I’d like to print stars accordignly.

I’m trying to do it within Repeater control:

<b>Rating:</b>

<% for (int j = 1; j <= DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Rating"); j++)
{  %>
<img src="App_Pics/fullstar.png" />
<% }
for (int j = 1; j <= 5 - DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Rating"); j++)
{ %>
<img src="App_Pics/emptystar.png" />
<%} %>

1. I get the error The name 'Container' does not exist in the current context. It is weird, because when I used <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Name")%> a line before, it worked great.
2. Is it clever to include loops in my aspx page? I think it’s not very convenient. What’s my alternatives?
3. What’s that # means?

Thank you very much.

Answer 1

The # indicates code to be executed when data-binding occurs (i.e. when DataBind() is called on the control or the page). The <%# %> syntax is the data-binding equivilent of <%= %> so unfortunately you can’t just wrap your loop in <%# %> blocks and be done with it.

You can around this limitation by implementing a code-behind method and passing the rating to the method:

<%# GetStars(Convert.ToInt32(DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Rating"))) %>

And then implement the method as:

protected string GetStars(int rating)
{
    string output = string.Empty;
    for (int j = 1; j <= rating; j++) output += "<img src=\"App_Pics/fullstar.png\" />";
    for (int j = 1; j <= 5 - rating; j++) output += "<img src=\"App_Pics/emptystar.png\" />";
    return output;
}