Question

Okay, so I’ve created an anonymous type from a join of two lists. I bound it to my repeater in order to show it on my page but… I’m not sure what the best way to do that is. Should I do an Eval() in the asp page? Should I use the new dynamic type? What is the best practice for this scenario these days?

Answer 1

I like to use this approach with anonymous objects and eval:

Code Behind:

rpt.DataSource = list.Select(i => new 
  {
    Url = i.GetField("Url"),
    Text = i.GetField("Text")
  });
rpt.DataBind();

Markup:

<asp:Repeater ID="rpt" runat="server">
    <ItemTemplate>
        <a href="<%# Eval("Url") %>"><%# Eval("Text") %></a>
    </ItemTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>

By the way if you use ASP.NET 4.5 I recommend to use strongly typed repeaters, more info here:

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2011/09/02/strongly-typed-data-controls-asp-net-vnext-series.aspx