How to reference a record in a DataTable from RowIndex in DataGrid or DataView

Bo Wiklund

I am trying my first project in DOT NET and C# and I am developing an XML Web Service client with a main task to update records in a server. The client receives the databases from the server in form of XML DataSets (In server: return myDataSet.GetXml();). The Clients then recreates the DataSets and DataTables by reading the XML-files (In client: ds.ReadXml(xmlFileName); ) All well so far. The Client’s Window Form has a DataDrid for the user to navigation in the DataTable and TextBoxes for editing data. The TextBoxes are populated from the DataTable, guided by the RowIndex from the DataGrid (myGrid.CurrentRowIndex;) as the user clicks rows in the grid. Ex.: textBoxProductName.Text = tblProduct.Rows[rowIndex]["ProductName"].ToString(); When the TextBoxes are changed and the user confirms change then the client invokes a Web Service call to the server with the textboxes as parameters and requests update of the database. If the client receives back a successful response from the server then the textboxes will be copied into the DataTable in order to represent a “mirror” of the Server databases throughout the session. This works perfectly well as long as the DataGrid represents a copy of the DataTable (DataGrid rowIndex is the same as for DataTable rowindex). In the next step I have sophisticated a little by creating a DataView to sort and filter records and now myGrid.DataSource = myDataView. Here I have got my problem: How can I now read a cell in the Grid or DataView and locate the correct rownumber in the DataTable to populate my textBoxes. As it happens now the textboxes are populated with the wrong records from the DataTable, and if I invoke a server call there will be a complete mess in my databases. Is there any way out of this problem or do I have to completely change my logics in the program?

3 Replies

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Bo Wiklund23y ago
Just discovered the solution, that is the DataGridCell object. By reading a column value through a DataGridCell from the Grid I can locate the same in the DataTable and get the actaul row number of the DataTable.
Bo Wiklund23y ago
Thanks for your reply. Sorry about all the text, but if you could just read the last part of it. My problem is that when the user clicks a row in the Grid that he wants to edit I don't know how to locate the DataTable.Rows property from Grid_CurrentCellChanged as the Grid.DataSource is connected to a DataView (I need to sort and filter the DataTable before I make it visable to the users). In other words, is there a way to read the value of a column in the DataGrid or the DataView?
Mahesh Chand23y ago
Sorry. I didnt read your entire post. Too much to read but I can answer your question. The DataTable.Rows property returns an object of DataRowCollection, which is a collection of DataRow. A DataRow object represents a record in the DataTable, from that you can get the value of the column you are looking for.