Datalist Control

[Peter Afonin]

Hello,

I'm using Datalist control with ASP.NET 3.5. I don't have much experience with this control, so perhaps I don't quite understand how it works.

The data in the table look approximately like this:

1
2
3
4
5
6
1
2
3
......

and so on, just repeating numbers from 1 to 6 (same is true for 1 to 12 or any other sequence).

If I set the datalist this way:

RepeatColumns 0
RepeatDirection Vertical
RepeatLayout Table

it looks like this:

1 6 5 4
2 1 6 5
3 2 1 6
4 3 2 1
5 4 3 2 etc.

and so on. It always move the last value to the next column.

Instead, it always shows 6 columns (or 12 for 1-12 etc.)

If I set RepeatDirection Horizontal it looks like:

1 2 3
1 2 3
1 2 3
1 2 3
1 2 3 etc., which is not what I need.

I need it to look like this

1 1 1
2 2 2
3 3 3
4 4 4
5 5 5
6 6 6 etc.

Could you help me please?

Thank you.

 

[Guest]

RepeatColumns 0
RepeatDirection Vertical
RepeatLayout Table

it looks like this:

1 6 5 4
2 1 6 5
3 2 1 6
4 3 2 1
5 4 3 2 etc.

and so on. It always move the last value to the next column.

Well, "6" is not the "last" value and that's the problem. The Datalist control is based on your datasource and a number of columns you have set in the RepeatColumns property. It seems that you've set it to more than 0, because 0 indicates that the items in the DataList control are displayed in a single column, see here

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.datalist.repeatcolumns.aspx

To understand how it works, just make less data in your source table, e.g. just 24 rows (3 times from 1 to 6) or do "select top 24 * from table1..."

and set RepeatColumns = 3 and RepeatDirection Vertical

You will get this
1 1 1
2 2 2
3 3 3
4 4 4
5 5 5
6 6 6

because of "proper" number of columns.

Try to change the value of RepeatColumns and you will see that the flow will be changed as well.

 

[Peter Afonin]

Thank you, I'll check this out.

For some reason the RepeatColumns property doesn't work at all. Whether I set it to 0 or any other number - it doesn't change anything when I open the page, I can see the changes only in design time.

Peter

RepeatColumns 0
RepeatDirection Vertical
RepeatLayout Table

it looks like this:

1 6 5 4
2 1 6 5
3 2 1 6
4 3 2 1
5 4 3 2 etc.

and so on. It always move the last value to the next column.

Well, "6" is not the "last" value and that's the problem. The Datalist control is based on your datasource and a number of columns you have set in the RepeatColumns property. It seems that you've set it to more than 0, because 0 indicates that the items in the DataList control are displayed in a single column, see here

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.datalist.repeatcolumns.aspx

To understand how it works, just make less data in your source table, e.g. just 24 rows (3 times from 1 to 6) or do "select top 24 * from table1..."

and set RepeatColumns = 3 and RepeatDirection Vertical

You will get this
1 1 1
2 2 2
3 3 3
4 4 4
5 5 5
6 6 6

because of "proper" number of columns.

Try to change the value of RepeatColumns and you will see that the flow will be changed as well.