asp.net datalist data binding

Question

I am using an ASP.NET/C# DataList.

 <asp:DataList ID="EquipmentList" RepeatColumns="5".....  

I have the following line inside the <ItemTemplate> tag:

 <a href=""`><%# {I want to put something here but dont know how} %> </a>  

In my code behind I have a NameValueCollection variable that contains all strings:

 NameValueCollection myListofStrings = //calling a method here that populates myListofStrings   
this.EquipmentList.DataSource =  myListofStrings;  
this.EquipmentList.DataBind();

Please can someone tell me how to bind this NameValueCollection variable to my DataList tag in the markup? Also additional knowledge on how to bind a DataList to a DataSet, sqldatareader, IList<> would be helpful.

Thank you all. but for now what do I write inside the tag if lets say I have to bind to a 1NameValueCollection1 variable like in my case above. It has no properties or columns so I cannot write anything like Eval("propertyname") which is the answer that most here gave me. It is just like I am binding it to an array of strings.

So what do I write now?

Answer 1

Please can someone tell me how to bind this NameValueCollection variable to my datalist tag in the markup? Also additional knowledge on how to bind a datalist to a dataset, sqldatareader, IList<> would be helpful. Thannks

I declare my List<ComplexObject> in my codebehind (say ... in a method attached to an OnClick) and then I will databind it like so:

private void DoDataGetAndBind() {
  List<ComplexObject> complexObjects = _dataAccessLayer.GetComplexObjectsMethod(parameter1, parameter2, sortParameter);
  datalist1.DataSource = complexObjects;
  datalist1.DataBind();
}

Now please understand how simplified my code is, I didn't put any error checks (like, if the database dropped or you returned no results) and I didn't define the parameters or the ComplexObject (because I presume you understand how those things work).

In the .aspx of the page, I would then define inside the ItemTemplate of the DataList control fields where I <%# Eval('ComplexObjectFieldOneName') %> or <%# Eval('ComplexObjectFieldTwoName') %> (etc).

So given a

public class ComplexObject {
  public string MyFirstField {get;set;}
  public string MySecondField {get;set;}
}

I would define the fields in the .aspx as <%# Eval('MyFirstField') %> and <%# Eval('MySecondField') %>

Ok, that was rather long winded, so I hope it really did help.

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Another point: You can also use ObjectDataSources (or the derived classes like SqlDataSource, etc) and do all the linking on the .aspx, assuming properly built object classes. Something to consider.