Unable to load Controls from Empty Data Template in GridView asp.net - asp.net

Question

I have a GridView which is binded with DataTable for the datasource, when there is no records in the underlying datasource i show up the EmptyDataTemplate with Two DropDown (State and City) and based on the State i fills up City.
Now my problem is till i have some records inside the Datasource it works fine, but as soon as i delete the last remaining record from the datasource, it throws error, it switches to the emptydatatemplate but it could not find the States Dropdownlist (based on which i am filling city dropdown). But once i refresh the page it works fine.
I don't understand which event to grab to place the codes
Here's what i am doing
Below function gets the stateid and fills the cities based on it
private void FillCitiesByStateId()
{
drpCity = grdLocationView.Controls[0].Controls[0].FindControl("drpCitiesAdd") as DropDownList;
drpState = grdLocationView.Controls[0].Controls[0].FindControl("drpStatesAdd") as DropDownList; // Fetches the States DropDown from EmptyDataTemplate.
if (drpState != null)
{
objCity.StateId = Convert.ToInt32(drpState.SelectedValue); //It always throws error on this line.
drpCity.DataSource = objCity.GetCitiesByStateId();
drpCity.DataTextField = "Name";
drpCity.DataValueField = "Id";
drpCity.DataBind();
}
}
Below is the code i which is used to bind the records in dropdowns
protected void grdLocationView_RowDataBound(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
if (dt.Rows.Count == 0)
{
FillCitiesByStateId();
}
else
{
if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.Header)
{
drpCity = e.Row.FindControl("drpCities") as DropDownList;
drpState = e.Row.FindControl("drpStates") as DropDownList;
objCity.StateId = Convert.ToInt32(drpState.SelectedValue);
drpCity.DataSource = objCity.GetCitiesByStateId();
drpCity.DataTextField = "Name";
drpCity.DataValueField = "Id";
drpCity.DataBind();
}
}
}
Can anyone provide any suggestion whats going wrong with it

Answer 1

Make sure you are only calling the FillCitiesByStateId() for appropriate row types. Maybe you're calling it for a footer row?
DataControlRowType Enumeration
instead of:
if (dt.Rows.Count == 0)
{
FillCitiesByStateId();
}
try:
if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.EmptyDataRow)
{
FillCitiesByStateId();
}