Question

This question relates to ASP.Net 3.5 and C#

I’m building an RSS Feed from a database containing a lot of columns.

I need to format the data in a particular node and doing it inline is going to be very messy.

I’m aware I can pass all the parameters individually to a subroutine

    <%# formatAddress(Container.DataItem["propertyName"],
        Container.DataItem["propertyNumber"], ... ) %>

As there’s going to be up to 20 of these columns, I’d rather pass the entire row.

    <%# formatAddress(Container.DataItem) %>

This would be ideal then I can pick out the columns I want in code behind:

    protected string FormattedAddress(object row)
        {

        DataRowView data = (DataRowView)row;

        StringBuilder Address = new StringBuilder();
        string Postcode = data["propertyPostcode"];
        ...
        return Address.ToString();
    }

I’m getting the error Unable to cast object of type ‘System.Data.Common.DataRecordInternal’ to type ‘System.Data.DataRowView’.

Previously, I was using protected string FormattedAddress(DataRowView row) but that didn’t work either.

Any clues?

Answer 1

Eventually found a couple of examples which led me to realise I should be casting to DbDataRecord.

I’m still passing <%# formattedAddress(Container.DataItem) %> but my function is now as follows:

    protected string FormattedAddress(object dataItem)
    {
        DbDataRecord data = (DbDataRecord)dataItem;

        string Postcode = data.GetValue(
                          data.GetOrdinal("propertyPostcode")).ToString();
        ...    
        return NicelyFormattedAddress;
    }

Is this the best way to handle the data?