Creating a GridView with columns generated at runtime

I have a DataTable where the columns are generated programmatically at runtime. I then bind this DataTable to a GridView. What I’m wondering is how I can create the GridView to accommodate this, and if it’s not possible, how I can output the DataTable into nicely formatted HTML.

Answers:

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Method 1

The GridView has an AutogenerateColums-property for this purpose.
You could also generate the Columns on the fly, for example:

VB.NET

Dim tbl As New DataTable
tbl.Columns.Add("ID", GetType(Int32))
tbl.Columns.Add("Name", GetType(String))
tbl.Columns.Add("Birthday", GetType(Date))
Dim pers As DataRow = tbl.NewRow
pers("ID") = 1
pers("Name") = "Tim"
pers("Birthday") = New Date(1973, 6, 9)

use AutoGenerateColumns to let grid generate the column itself:

Me.GridView1.AutoGenerateColumns = True
Me.GridView1.DataSource = tbl
Me.GridView1.DataBind()

or generate the columns dynamically

For Each col As DataColumn In tbl.Columns
    Dim field As New BoundField
    field.DataField = col.ColumnName
    field.HeaderText = col.ColumnName
    GridView1.Columns.Add(field)
Next

C#

foreach (DataColumn col in dt.Columns)
{    
    BoundField field = new BoundField();
    field.DataField = col.ColumnName;
    field.HeaderText = col.ColumnName;
    GridView1.Columns.Add(field);
}

Method 2

You should be able to just set the DataTable as the gridview’s DataSource. GridView has a AutoGenerateColumns property. Make sure it’s set to true or pre-create columns manually yourself before performing the binding.

Method 3

Just because the other answers didn’t cover this, here is how to set up a GridView with custom columns programatically.

    private GridView SetUpGrid()
    {
        GridView GView = new GridView();

        GView .ColumnHeaderToolTip = "MyToolTip";

        GridViewColumn gvc1 = new GridViewColumn();
        gvc1.DisplayMemberBinding = new Binding("Col1Name");
        gvc1.Header = "Column One";
        gvc1.Width = Double.NaN; // Auto-Size
        GView .Columns.Add(gvc1);
        GridViewColumn gvc2 = new GridViewColumn();
        gvc2.DisplayMemberBinding = new Binding("Col2Name");
        gvc2.Header = "Column Two";
        gvc2.Width = Double.NaN;
        GView .Columns.Add(gvc2);
        GridViewColumn gvc3 = new GridViewColumn();
        gvc3.DisplayMemberBinding = new Binding("Col3Name");
        gvc3.Header = "Column Three";
        gvc3.Width = Double.NaN;
        GView .Columns.Add(gvc3);
        GridViewColumn gvc4 = new GridViewColumn();
        gvc4.DisplayMemberBinding = new Binding("Col4Name");
        gvc4.Header = "Column Four";
        gvc4.Width = Double.NaN;
        GView .Columns.Add(gvc4);

        return GView;
    }

All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0