How to hide a column (GridView) but still access i

Question

I have a GridView with a DataSource (SQL Database). I want to hide a column, but still be able to access the value when I select the record. Can someone show me how to do this?

This is the column I want to hide and still want to access its value:

<asp:BoundField DataField="Outlook_ID" HeaderText="OutlookID" />

I tried everything to hide the column (property Visible="false"), but I can't access its value.

Answer 1

Leave visible columns before filling the GridView. Fill the GridView and then hide the columns.

Answer 2

You can make the column hidden on the server side and for some reason this is different to doing it the aspx code. It can still be referenced as if it was visible. Just add this code to your OnDataBound event.

protected void gvSearchResults_DataBound(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    GridView gridView = (GridView)sender;

    if (gridView.HeaderRow != null && gridView.HeaderRow.Cells.Count > 0)
    {
        gridView.HeaderRow.Cells[UserIdColumnIndex].Visible = false;
    }

    foreach (GridViewRow row in gvSearchResults.Rows)
    {
        row.Cells[UserIdColumnIndex].Visible = false;
    }
}

Answer 3

You can do it code behind.

Set visible= false for columns after data binding . After that you can again do visibility "true" in row_selection function from grid view .It will work!!

Answer 4

If you do have a TemplateField inside the columns of your GridView and you have, say, a control named blah bound to it. Then place the outlook_id as a HiddenField there like this:

<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="OutlookID">
    <ItemTemplate>
        <asp:Label ID="blah" runat="server">Existing Control</asp:Label>
        <asp:HiddenField ID="HiddenOutlookID" runat="server" Value='<%#Eval("Outlook_ID") %>'/>
    </ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>

Now, grab the row in the event you want the outlook_id and then access the control.
For RowDataBound access it like:

string outlookid = ((HiddenField)e.Row.FindControl("HiddenOutlookID")).Value;

Do get back, if you have trouble accessing the clicked row. And don't forget to mention the event at which you would like to access that.

Answer 5

You can use DataKeys for retrieving the value of such fields, because (as you said) when you set a normal BoundField as visible false you cannot get their value.

In the .aspx file set the GridView property

DataKeyNames = "Outlook_ID"

Now, in an event handler you can access the value of this key like so:

grid.DataKeys[rowIndex]["Outlook_ID"]

This will give you the id at the specified rowindex of the grid.

Answer 6

I used a method similar to user496892:

SPBoundField hiddenField = new SPBoundField();
hiddenField.HeaderText = "Header";
hiddenField.DataField = "DataFieldName";
grid.Columns.Add(hiddenField);

grid.DataSource = myDataSource;
grid.DataBind();

hiddenField.Visible = false;