Displaying Random Data

This live demo illustrates how to display five random records from the Articles table.

TitleDate WrittenCommentsViews
Displaying Custom Classes in a DataGrid10/23/2002This article examines how to display the contents of a custom class in a DataGrid. That is, it shows how to build custom classes and then how to bind a collection of these classes to a DataGrid (or any other Data Web Control, for that matter).4834
XML, the DataSet, and a DataGrid5/29/2002This article, by Scott Mitchell, examines how to display XML data in a DataGrid. Specifically, it shows using the DataSet's ReadXml() method to populate a DataSet with data from an XML store.4662
Common DataGrid Mistakes11/6/2003This article, by the DataGridGirl herself, lists the most common mistakes and blunders developers make when using the DataGrid.18940
Bidirectional Sorting with Up and Down Arrows in the Header6/15/2005This article shows how to create a bi-directional sortable DataGrid that displays an up or down arrow in the header of the column that the grid is sorted by, depending on if the data is sorted in ascending or descending order.10443
DataGrid Made Compliant with Section 508 of the Web Accessibility Initiative Guidelines8/19/2003The DataGrid control that was included with the .NET Framework 1.1 was not compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (www.Section508.gov) or with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). Data tables that contain two or more rows or columns must identify row and column headers. Microsoft has released a HotFix that you can install that will have DataGrids render according to 508 specifications.6695

Source Code 

<%@ Page Language="VB" %>
<script runat="server">

    Sub Page_Load(sender as Object, e as EventArgs)
      If Not Page.IsPostBack then
        dgArticles.DataSource = GetArticles()
        dgArticles.DataBind()
      End If
    End Sub
    
    
     Function GetArticles() As System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader
         Dim connectionString As String = "connection string"
         Dim sqlConnection As System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection = New System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection(connectionString)
    
         Dim queryString As String = "SELECT TOP 5 ArticleID, [Articles].[Title], [Articles].[URL], [Articles].[dateAuthored], [Articles"& _
"].[Comments], [Articles].[ClickThroughs] FROM [Articles] ORDER BY NEWID()"
         Dim sqlCommand As System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand = New System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand(queryString, sqlConnection)
    
         sqlConnection.Open
         Dim dataReader As System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader = sqlCommand.ExecuteReader(System.Data.CommandBehavior.CloseConnection)
    
         Return dataReader
     End Function    
    
         Sub dgArticles_Sort(sender as Object, e As DataGridSortCommandEventArgs)
           dgArticles.DataSource = GetArticles(e.SortExpression)
           dgArticles.DataBind()
         End Sub

</script>

    <form runat="server">
        <p>
            <asp:DataGrid id="dgArticles" runat="server" AllowSorting="True" AutoGenerateColumns="False" Font-Size="10pt" Font-Names="Verdana" OnSortCommand="dgArticles_Sort">
                <HeaderStyle font-size="13pt" font-bold="True" horizontalalign="Center" forecolor="White" backcolor="#006699"></HeaderStyle>
                <AlternatingItemStyle backcolor="#EEEEEE"></AlternatingItemStyle>
                <Columns>
                    <asp:HyperLinkColumn DataNavigateUrlField="ArticleID" DataNavigateUrlFormatString="/Articles/Goto.aspx?ID={0}" DataTextField="Title" SortExpression="Title" HeaderText="Title"></asp:HyperLinkColumn>
                    <asp:BoundColumn DataField="DateAuthored" SortExpression="dateAuthored DESC" HeaderText="Date Written" DataFormatString="{0:d}"></asp:BoundColumn>
                    <asp:BoundColumn DataField="Comments" HeaderText="Comments"></asp:BoundColumn>
                    <asp:BoundColumn DataField="ClickThroughs" SortExpression="ClickThroughs DESC" HeaderText="Views" DataFormatString="{0:d}" ItemStyle-HorizontalAlign="Center"></asp:BoundColumn>
                </Columns>
            </asp:DataGrid>            
        </p>
    </form>

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