I have a web-based form in ASP.NET that currently accesses a SQL 2000 database to show details of items. The items sometimes do not use all of the same columns though, and instead of listing the column data in an ASP.NET form with no data in a cell, I'd like to just skip displaying that cell in my page altogether. I have an ASP 3.0 version of this that works fine, but I can't get it working in ASP.NET. :( All I really need to know is how to do this in ASP.NET:

<%
If rsItems("ItemDescription") = "N/A" Then
Response.Write("")
Else
%>
<ENTER THE TABLE>
<% End If %>

If there isn't anything to display, I enter "N/A" in the database. Can anyone tell me how to just access the value of a single column in the current recordset to evaluate it as displayed above? The entire SQL statements are already configured and working fine, I just need this small addition.

Thanks!

Hi there,

It all depends on how you set up your data display.

One way to do this is to use the OnItemCreated event of a databound ASP.NET control like the Datagrid or the Repeater. Another way is to use simple databinding and bind to a function. Something like this:

<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, MyCustomFunction(Container.DataItem("MyColumn"))) %>

Your custom function (in code behind for example) could look like this:

Private Functon MyCustomFunction(ByVal ValueToCheck As String) As String
If ValueToCheck.Length = 0 Then
    Return ""
Else
    Return ValueToCheck
End If
End Function

Does this help? If not, could you please be more specific about the problem and your (partial) solution?

Cheers,

Imar