Bind Database Values to Generic List Using ASP.NET

Here I will explain how to bind a generic list to a GridView and how to bind database values to a generic list using ASP.NET. To do that, first we start with a database table.

Creating Table

Now create a table named UserDetail with columns Name, Address and Country. The table looks like below.

After creating the table, insert some values into the table.

We can build a collection of objects; we first need an object. I tend to use a Class1 object for that example. The Class1 object simply holds some information about a user - Name, Address, and Country.

To do that, add one class file to your website; for that, right-click on your website and select Add New Item; a window will open; in that select Class file and give the name Class1.

The following is the object I'm going to use.

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

/// <summary>

/// Summary description for Class2

/// </summary>

public class Class1

{

// TODO: Add constructor logic here

private string name;

private string address;

private string country;

public string Name

{

get

{

return name;

}

set

{

name = value;

}

public string Address

{

get

{

return address;

}

set

{

address = value;

}

public string Country

{

get

{

return country;

}

set

{

country = value;

}

Now create a new website and drag and drop a GridView control onto the aspx page. The GridView code looks like this.

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default2.aspx.cs" Inherits="Default2" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

</head>

<body>

<div>

<asp:GridView runat="server" ID="gvUserDetails" AutoGenerateColumns="false">

<asp:BoundField HeaderText="Name" DataField="Name" />

<asp:BoundField HeaderText="Address" DataField="Address" />

<asp:BoundField HeaderText="Country" DataField="Country" />

</Columns>

</asp:GridView>

</div>

</form>

</body>

</html>

Now that we have an object, we need a collection to hold them. One of my favorite collection objects is the List, located in the System.Collections.Generic namespace, so we'll start with that.

List<Class1> obj1 = new List<Class1>();

Connection String

string strConnection = "Data Source=.; uid=sa; pwd=wintellect;database=Genericdatabase;";

Now double-click on the form and add the following code in Default.aspx.cs file.

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Data;

using System.Data.SqlClient;

public partial class Default2 : System.Web.UI.Page

{

List<Class1> obj1 = new List<Class1>();

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

if (!IsPostBack)

{

BindUserDetails();

}

protected void BindUserDetails()

{

obj1 = GetUserDetails();

gvUserDetails.DataSource = obj1;

gvUserDetails.DataBind();

}

protected List<Class1> GetUserDetails()

{

string strConnection = "Data Source=.; uid=sa; pwd=wintellect;database=Genericdatabase;";

DataTable dt = new DataTable();

SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection(strConnection);

con.Open();

SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("select * from UserDetail", con);

SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(cmd);

da.Fill(dt);

if (dt.Rows.Count > 0)

{

for (int i = 0; i < dt.Rows.Count; i++)

{

Class1 userinfo = new Class1();

userinfo.Name = dt.Rows[i]["Name"].ToString();

userinfo.Address = dt.Rows[i]["Address"].ToString();

userinfo.Country = dt.Rows[i]["Country"].ToString();

obj1.Add(userinfo);

}

return obj1;

}