How to get selected value from GridView (C#)

Question

I have GridView that allows select. It takes data from EntityDataSource. How do I get the entity Object that is selected when the row in GridView is selected ? Primary keys of entities are not displayed in the GridView.

Thanks for answers

Answer 1

If you're using a template field in your gridview, you can pass the primary key in the CommandArgument property for your select command. Example:

<asp:TemplateField>
    <ItemTemplate>
        <asp:LinkButton ID="btnSelect" runat="server" Text="Select"                                  CommandName="select" CommandArgument='<%# Eval("My_Primary_Key") %>' />
    </ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>

Then, when the user clicks the "select" button, this triggers a "RowCommand" event on your gridview. If you capture this event and check the e.CommandArgument property, you'll be able to gain access to the primary key corresponding to the row they selected:

protected void myGridView_RowCommand(object sender, GridViewCommandEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.CommandName.Equals("select", StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase))
    {
        int primaryKeyInteger = Convert.ToInt32(e.CommandArgument);
        // Do other stuff ...
    }
}

Hope this helps!