ASP.NET Repeater and DataBinder.Eval
- by Fernando
I've got a <asp:Repeater> in my webpage, which is bound to a programatically created dataset.
The purpose of this repeater is to create an index from A-Z, which, when clicked, refreshes the information on the page.
The repeater has a link button like so:
<asp:LinkButton ID="indexLetter" Text='<%#DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem,"letter")%>'
runat="server" CssClass='<%#DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "cssclass")%>'
Enabled='<%#DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem,"enabled")%>'></asp:LinkButton>
The dataset is created the following way:
protected DataSet getIndex(String index)
{
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
ds.Tables.Add("index");
ds.Tables["index"].Columns.Add("letter");
ds.Tables["index"].Columns.Add("cssclass");
ds.Tables["index"].Columns.Add("enabled");
char alphaStart = Char.Parse("A");
char alphaEnd = Char.Parse("Z");
for (char i = alphaStart; i <= alphaEnd; i++)
{
String cssclass="", enabled="true";
if (index == i.ToString())
{
cssclass = "selected";
enabled = "false";
}
ds.Tables["index"].Rows.Add(new Object[3] {i.ToString(),cssclass,enabled });
}
return ds;
}
However, when I run the page, a "Specified cast is not valid exception" is thrown in Text='<%#DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem,"letter")'. I have no idea why, I have tried manually casting to String with (String), I've tried a ToString() method, I've tried everything.
Also, if in the debugger I add a watch for DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem,"letter"), the value it returns is "A", which according to me, should be fine for the Text Property.
EDIT:
Here is the exception:
System.InvalidCastException was unhandled by user code
Message="Specified cast is not valid." Source="App_Web_cmu9mtyc"
StackTrace:
at ASP.savecondition_aspx._DataBinding_control7(Object sender, EventArgs e) in e:\Documents and Settings\Fernando\My
Documents\Visual Studio
2008\Projects\mediTrack\mediTrack\saveCondition.aspx:line 45
at System.Web.UI.Control.OnDataBinding(EventArgs e)
at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind(Boolean raiseOnDataBinding)
at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind()
at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBindChildren() InnerException:
Any advice will be greatly appreciated, thank you
EDIT 2:
Fixed! The problem was not in the Text or CSS tags, but in the Enabled tag, I had to cast it to a Boolean value. The problem was that the exception was signaled at the Text tag, I don't know why
