Can I Use List<> Collection Instead of Using Dataset?

rachit sharma

My question is can i use List<> instead of dataset or datatable in asp.net using c#?Can by any means i use list<> than bind it to my gridview instead of datatable/dataset?Thank you?

3 Replies

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Abhishek Jain13y ago
Accepted answer
Yes why not you can anytime bind the list to the GridView just like you do it for Dataset.

Create a Enitity for your Data Model or the Table
Then create a List from the records in that datatable or dataset
No give this list as a data source to the grid and the PropertyNames in this entity can be the name of the DataField in Bound Fields

Sample Code:

public class Entity
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}

List list = new List();

DataTable dt = new DataTable();
//Suppose you have data in this Datatable

foreach (DataRow dr in dt)
{
Entity entity = new Entity();

entity.Id = Convert.ToInt32(dr["Id"]);
entity.Name = dr["Name"].ToString();

list.Add(entity);
}

grid.DataSource = list;
grid.DataBind();

Regards
AJ
rachit sharma13y ago
can i do this dynamically. I.e i dont know the number of columns in a table then obviously how can i set the properties like you have said. I have many tables (say 50) and each table has different columns so it is not feasible to set all columns as properties.
Sanjeeb Lenka13y ago
yes,

you can use List instead of dataset/datatable.

refer to this link for example:

http://www.aspsnippets.com/Articles/How-to-bind-GridView-with-Generic-List-in-ASPNet-using-C-and-VBNet.aspx