How to hide a TemplateField column in a GridView

How can I hide a TemplateField column in a GridView?

I tried the following:

<asp:TemplateField ShowHeader="False" Visible='<%# MyBoolProperty %>' >
<ItemTemplate>
    <asp:LinkButton ID="attachmentButton" runat="server" ... />
</ItemTemplate>

but it didn’t work and gives the following error:

Databinding expressions are only supported on objects that have a DataBinding event.
System.Web.UI.WebControls.TemplateField does not have a DataBinding event.

I tried also to hide it programmatically, but seems it’s not possible to get a column by the name because there iss no name for TemplateField column.

Answers:

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Method 1

protected void OnRowCreated(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
         e.Row.Cells[columnIndex].Visible = false;
}

If you don’t prefer hard-coded index, the only workaround I can suggest is to provide a HeaderText for the GridViewColumn and then find the column using that HeaderText.

protected void UsersGrid_RowCreated(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
    ((DataControlField)UsersGrid.Columns
            .Cast<DataControlField>()
            .Where(fld => fld.HeaderText == "Email")
            .SingleOrDefault()).Visible = false;
}

Method 2

For Each dcfColumn As DataControlField In gvGridview.Columns
    If dcfColumn.HeaderText = "ColumnHeaderText" Then
        dcfColumn.Visible = false                    
    End If
Next

Method 3

If appears to me that rows where Visible is set to false won’t be accessible, that they are removed from the DOM rather than hidden, so I also used the Display: None approach. In my case, I wanted to have a hidden column that contained the key of the Row. To me, this declarative approach is a little cleaner than some of the other approaches that use code.

<style>
   .HiddenCol{display:none;}                
</style>


 <%--ROW ID--%>
      <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Row ID">
       <HeaderStyle CssClass="HiddenCol" />
       <ItemTemplate>
       <asp:Label ID="lblROW_ID" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("ROW_ID") %>'></asp:Label>
       </ItemTemplate>
       <ItemStyle HorizontalAlign="Right" CssClass="HiddenCol" />
       <EditItemTemplate>
       <asp:TextBox ID="txtROW_ID" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("ROW_ID") %>'></asp:TextBox>
       </EditItemTemplate>
       <FooterStyle CssClass="HiddenCol" />
      </asp:TemplateField>

Method 4

GridView1.Columns[columnIndex].Visible = false;

Method 5

try this

.hiddencol
    {
        display:none;
    }
    .viscol
    {
        display:block;
    }

add following code on RowCreated Event of GridView

protected void OnRowCreated(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
     if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.DataRow)
     {
         e.Row.Cells[0].CssClass = "hiddencol";
     }
     else if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.Header)
     {
         e.Row.Cells[0].CssClass = "hiddencol";
     }
}

Method 6

Am I missing something ?

If you can’t set visibility on TemplateField then set it on its content

<asp:TemplateField>
  <ItemTemplate>
    <asp:LinkButton Visible='<%# MyBoolProperty %>' ID="foo" runat="server" ... />
  </ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>

or if your content is complex then enclose it into a div and set visibility on the div

<asp:TemplateField>
  <ItemTemplate>
    <div runat="server" visible='<%# MyBoolProperty  %>' >
      <asp:LinkButton ID="attachmentButton" runat="server" ... />
    </div>
  </ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>

Method 7

This can be another way to do it and validate nulls

DataControlField dataControlField = UsersGrid.Columns.Cast<DataControlField>().SingleOrDefault(x => x.HeaderText == "Email");
            if (dataControlField != null)
                dataControlField.Visible = false;

Method 8

A slight improvement using column name, IMHO:

    Private Sub GridView1_Init(sender As Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles GridView1.Init
    For Each dcf As DataControlField In GridView1.Columns
        Select Case dcf.HeaderText.ToUpper
            Case "CBSELECT"
                dcf.Visible = Me.CheckBoxVisible
                dcf.HeaderText = "<small>Select</small>"
        End Select
    Next
End Sub

This allows control over multiple column.
I initially use a ‘technical’ column name, matching the control name within.
This makes it obvious within the ASCX page that it’s a control column.
Then swap out the name as desired for presentation.
If I spy the odd name in production, I know I skipped something.
The “ToUpper” avoids case-issues.

Finally, this runs ONE time on any post instead of capturing the event during row-creation.

Method 9

protected void gvLogMessageDetail_RowDataBound(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)  
    { 
      if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.Header)   
        {  
            if (rdlForImportOrExport.SelectedIndex == 1)  
            {  
                e.Row.Cells[3].Visible = false;  
                e.Row.Cells[4].Visible = false;  
                e.Row.Cells[5].Visible = false;  
            }  
            else  
            {  
                e.Row.Cells[3].Visible = true;  
                e.Row.Cells[4].Visible = true;  
                e.Row.Cells[5].Visible = true;  
            }  
        }    
        if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.DataRow) //skip header row  
        {  
            try  
            {  
                if (rdlForImportOrExport.SelectedIndex == 1)  
                {  
                    e.Row.Cells[3].Visible = false;  
                    e.Row.Cells[4].Visible = false;  
                    e.Row.Cells[5].Visible = false;  
                }  
                else  
                {  
                    e.Row.Cells[3].Visible = true;  
                    e.Row.Cells[4].Visible = true;  
                    e.Row.Cells[5].Visible = true;  
                }  
                }  
            catch  
            {  
                ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript(GetType(), "Expand", "<SCRIPT   LANGUAGE='javascript'>alert('There is binding problem in child grid.');</script>");  
            }  
        }  
    }

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