Getting Row's Name in a DataList - asp.net

Question

I have a datalist and would like to pull the row names from the table that I am getting my values from for the datalist. Heres an example of what I would like to do.
<HeaderTemplate>
'Get data row names
'Maybe something like Container.DataItem(row)?
</HeaderTemplate>

Answer 1

If you are using a DataTable as a Data Source for your Data List you could use the OnItemCreated method and provide a custom handler for the ItemCreated event to add the column header values. I'm not sure why you would want to do this. It sounds like a Repeater or GridView might be better suited to your needs. At any rate, here's the code.
<asp:DataList ID="DataList1" runat="server" OnItemCreated="DataList1_ItemCreated"
ShowHeader="true" >
<HeaderTemplate>
</HeaderTemplate>
</asp:DataList>
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["LocalSqlServer"].ToString()))
{
conn.Open();
SqlCommand comm = new SqlCommand("SELECT [id], [name], [email], [street], [city] FROM [employee_tbl]", conn);
SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(comm);
da.Fill(dt);
}
DataList1.DataSource = dt;
DataList1.DataBind();
}
protected void DataList1_ItemCreated(object sender, DataListItemEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.Header)
{
foreach (DataColumn col in dt.Columns)
{
Literal lit = new Literal();
lit.Text = col.ColumnName;
e.Item.Controls.Add(lit);
}
}
}

Answer 2

You could do the following, but I doubt it would work. I don't believe DataItems are available at the point when the Header is being created.
((DataRowView)Container.DataItem).DataView.Table.Columns
If this works, you can loop through this collection and inspect each item's ColumnName property.
A better idea would be to either:
Create a property in codebehind that returns a List<string> of appropriate column headers. You can refer to this property in markup when you're declaring the header.
Add a handler for the ItemDataBound event and trap header creation. You will still need a way to refer to the data elements, which probably haven't been prepped at this point.