How do I find out if a column exists in a VB.Net DataRow

.net vb.net ado.net dataset datarow
Bryan Anderson picture Bryan Anderson · Oct 7, 2008 · Viewed 103.3k times · Source

I am reading an XML file into a DataSet and need to get the data out of the DataSet. Since it is a user-editable config file the fields may or may not be there. To handle missing fields well I'd like to make sure each column in the DataRow exists and is not DBNull.

I already check for DBNull but I don't know how to make sure the column exists without having it throw an exception or using a function that loops over all the column names. What is the best method to do this?

Answer

John Chuckran picture John Chuckran · Oct 7, 2008

DataRow's are nice in the way that they have their underlying table linked to them. With the underlying table you can verify that a specific row has a specific column in it.

    If DataRow.Table.Columns.Contains("column") Then
        MsgBox("YAY")
    End If

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