Background

I am sharing this because I see a lot of questions on the forums on how to get the value from the GridView object, and I know how. As a beginner it's very tough and challenging to work with controls like a GridView in ASP.NET. Even I faced difficulties at the starting point of my career. So I am writing this mainly for beginners.

Here, I am not going to explain about GridView and other events in it, because there are a lot of good articles about that. I am only going to show the different ways we can use code to take the value from GridView.

First, we have to very be clear in our mind that there are mainly two ways of taking the cell value from the GridView:

• Bound field
• Template field

Using the Bound Field Columns

Sample aspx Code

<asp:BoundField DataField="activity_item_Code" HeaderText="Code" />  
<asp:BoundField DataField="activity_item_name" HeaderText="name"  />

C# Code

//any gridview event  
protected void GVactivityItems_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)  
{  
    // step 1 get the selected row from the gridview,since SelectedIndexChanged is a event of gridview you will surely get the SelectedRow(property)  
    GridViewRow gvr = GVactivityItems.SelectedRow;  
    //step 2-- from the row access the cell(Column) you want  
    txtcode.Text = gvr.Cells[0].Text;  
    //2nd way  
    //combination of step1 and step 2  
    txtname.Text = GVactivityItems.SelectedRow.Cells[1].Text;  
}

When you use the Template field column, you'll get this:

<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="description">  
   <EditItemTemplate>  

   <asp:TextBox ID="txt_object_Value_description" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("object_Value_description") %>'> </asp:TextBox>  
</EditItemTemplate>  

   <ItemTemplate>  
   <asp:Label ID="lbl_object_Value_description" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("object_Value_description") %>'></asp:Label>  
</ItemTemplate>  

   <FooterTemplate>  
<asp:TextBox ID="txt_object_Value_description_ins" runat="server" ></asp:TextBox>  
</FooterTemplate>  

</asp:TemplateField>  
C# code:  
protected void GV_ObjVal_RowUpdating(object sender, GridViewUpdateEventArgs e)  
{  

   string obj_Value_Desc;   

   GridViewRow row = GV_ObjVal.Rows[e.RowIndex];  
   obj_Value_Desc = ((TextBox)row.FindControl("txt_object_Value_description")).Text.ToString().Trim();  
}

Important Note

The main difference is that here we are using the Find Control() method, that is, first we need to find the control inside the GridView and only then can we access the data from it.

Another Way of Taking — Just for Sharing

This code is for taking the value apart from the GridView events; that is, any common event using a sender object. But ensure that the control/link is inside the GridView, only then can we cast sender as GridView. This code is a bit complex but just add it knowing that we may refer to it in the future.

protected void lnk_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)  
{  
    try  
    {  
        GridView gv = sender as GridView;  
        //int tenderid = Convert.ToInt16(HdnfldNewTenderID.Value);  
        GridViewRow gvr = (GridViewRow)(sender as LinkButton)  
            .NamingContainer;  
        int tenderid = Convert.ToInt16(GVCreateNewTenderWorkspace.DataKeys[gvr.RowIndex].Value);  
        string tendername = ((Label) gvr.FindControl("GvTenderBaseTenderName"))  
            .Text;  
    }  
}  

Conclusion

Here in GridView, in the beginning the major part is to make the decision of putting either a bound field or a template field and the answer is simple: When we want to place any control inside the GridView then we can go for template field, otherwise bound field will be simpler.

I hope the above information was a little bit helpful for you, kindly let me know your valuable feedback or thoughts.