Grid view binding - asp.net

Question

I am binding an Object datasource to a grid view. My object has a collection of items in one of the properties.Which is a List. How do I Loop thru this and bind the items to a column in GridView?.

Answer 1

Get the Collection from the object and bind it by using
myGridView.DataSource = myCollection;
myGridView.DataBind();

Answer 2

Edit: updated to call a method in the code behind to generate html markup for the collection.
In your aspx markup you could have something like the following:
<asp:GridView ID="myGridView" AutoGenerateColumns="False" runat="server">
<Columns>
<asp:BoundField HeaderText="Item Name" DataField="Name" />
<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Collection Field">
<ItemTemplate>
<%# ((_Default)Page).GetHtmlForList(DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "List"))%>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>
</Columns>
</asp:GridView>
then in your code behind you could have something like this:
public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!Page.IsPostBack)
{
myGridView.DataSource = GetCollection();
myGridView.DataBind();
}
}
public string GetHtmlForList(object value)
{
string html = "";
List<string> list = (List<string>)value;
foreach (string item in list)
html += item + "<br/>";
return html;
}
private List<MyClass> GetCollection()
{
List<MyClass> coll = new List<MyClass>();
coll.Add(new MyClass { Name = "First Item", List = new List<string>(new string[] { "1", "2", "3" }) });
coll.Add(new MyClass { Name = "Second Item", List = new List<string>(new string[] { "Apples", "Pears", "Oranges" }) });
coll.Add(new MyClass { Name = "Third Item", List = new List<string>(new string[] { "Red", "Green", "Blue" }) });
return coll;
}
}
public class MyClass
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public List<string> List { get; set; }
}

Answer 3

Could you not have a Repeater inside the Col. template, and simply bind your List to it in the RowDataBound?