Style table in repeater from code behind - asp.net

Question

Hey guys I need some help with an application that I'm developing.
I'm trying to add a css class / styling to a table depending on a certain value that I'm getting from the database ( e.g. 0 - 2).
This is the code where I need to change the styling of the table
Public Function projectType(ByVal value As Integer)
Dim projectName As String
If value = 0 Then
projectName = "Project"
mytable.AddAttributes("Style", "Background-color:#444444")
ElseIf value = 1 Then
projectName = "Support"
Else
projectName = "Not available"
End If
Return projectName
End Function
Markup:
<asp:DataList ID="DataList1" runat="server" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1" RepeatColumns="1"
RepeatDirection="Vertical" CellPadding="0" CellSpacing="0">
<ItemTemplate>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%; text-align: left; border-bottom: 1px solid #999999;
padding-bottom: 15px;">
<tr>
<td style="width: 110px; vertical-align: top; padding-left: 20px; padding-top: 5px;
padding-bottom: 5px;">
<asp:Label ID="Label5" runat="server" Text='<%# projectType(Eval("Type")) %>' Font-Names="Verdana"
Font-Size="9pt" EnableTheming="false" />
</td>
<td style="width: 110px; vertical-align: top; padding-left: 20px; padding-top: 5px;
padding-bottom: 5px;">
<asp:Label ID="Label2" runat="server" Text='<%# hoursCheck(Eval("Duration")) %>'
Font-Names="Verdana" Font-Size="9pt" Style="text-align: right" EnableTheming="false" />
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: center">
<asp:Label ID="Label7" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("FullName") %>' Font-Names="Verdana"
Font-Size="7pt" EnableTheming="false" />
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:DataList>
From this function I need to access the table by getting the parent table of the sender since I can't explicitly say I want Datalist1 since I have 5 of them, how can I do this?

Answer 1

First of all, please get rid of inline styles and replace them with CSS classes. Will save you a lot of headache later on. For instance, have two CSS classes, one for "Project", another for "Support" and "Not available"
As for the actual question, the easiest thing that comes to mind is to split the logic into two functions, one for text and one for css class:
Public Function projectTypeText(ByVal value As Integer)
...
Return projectName
End Function
Public Function projectTypeClass(ByVal value As Integer)
...
Return projectCssClass
End Function
And then use it exactly as you did:
<%-- This might actually need runat="server", not sure --%>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style='<%# projectTypeClass(Eval("Type")) %>'
<asp:Label ID="Label5" runat="server" Text='<%# projectType(Eval("Type")) %>'
Note: if you absolutely have to deal with inline classes, you can have projectTypeStyle which returns Background-color:#444444, but then inside the markup you will need to do nasty stuff like that:
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style='<%# "width: 100%; rest of styles; " + projectTypeStyle(Eval("Type")) %>'
This is horrible, so please avoid at all cost.