Hi!
    I am having a datagrid whose ItemTemplate looks like the following:

<asp:TemplateColumn HeaderText="Supervisior">

<ItemTemplate>
    <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem,"SupName")%>
</ItemTemplate>

<EditItemTemplate>

<asp:DropDownList ID="drpReportsTo" DataTextField="Name" DataValueField="EmployeeID" DataSource = '<%# GetEmployees() %>'
SelectedIndex = '<%# GetSelEmployee((int)DataBinder.Eval(Container.Data Item,"ReportsTo")) %>' Runat = "server">
</asp:DropDownList>

</EditItemTemplate>

</asp:TemplateColumn>

When i click the edit button in the datagrid I am passing the value of ReportsTo to GetSelEmployee() function in code behind so that the dropdownlist in the EditItemTemplate selects the appropriate Item. My problem is that in the database the ReportsTo column can be null. If that happens the code : ((int)DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem,"ReportsT o")) produces an error as it is not able to convert null to int. Can anyone let me know how i can check if ReportsTo is not null and only then run

SelectedIndex = '<%# GetSelEmployee((int)DataBinder.Eval(Container.Data Item,"ReportsTo")) %>'

Thanks in advance!

Regards
Sandeep Saran

I'd recommend creating a helper function in the page. Have it check the value and return something appropriate.

protected int GetIndex(object value){
  if(value == DBNull){
    return -1;
  } else {
    return (int)value
  }
}

Call that from the data binding:

SelectedIndex = '<%# GetSelEmployee(GetIndex(DataBinder.Eval(Container. DataItem,"ReportsTo"))) %>'

-Peter