Problem with empty cell value in GridView

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Bill Gower - 06 Aug 2007 21:01 GMT

I have an cell which contains a field member which is filled with
String.Empty. When I retrieve the value in the cell with
Cells[0].Text.ToString() and try to compare it to String.Empty, I can't
because it contains "&nbsp". I really don't want to compare the value to
that so how can I retrieve an empty cell so that it is String.Empty.

Bill

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Mark Rae [MVP] - 06 Aug 2007 21:20 GMT

> I have an cell which contains a field member which is filled with
> String.Empty. When I retrieve the value in the cell with
> Cells[0].Text.ToString() and try to compare it to String.Empty, I can't
> because it contains "&nbsp".

Yes - that's how empty GridView cells are rendered in HTML. A GridView is
nothing more than an HTML table by the time ASP.NET has rendered it to the
client browser - the rows are <tr> elements and the individual cells are
<td> elements. Some browsers have problems displaying <td> elements which
are completely empty, specifically with regard to borders etc, so ASP.NET
inserts   to prevent this.

> I really don't want to compare the value to that

??? Why on earth not?

if (Cells[0].Text.ToString() == " ")
{
// do something
}

What could be simpler...?

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Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

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Bill Gower - 06 Aug 2007 22:19 GMT

Ok that's fine. I won't make it more difficult then it is. :) But now I do
have a real problem. I am retrieving the 3rd row which happens to have no
value in the cell and it is actually containing the value from the first row
same cell. When the gridview is displayed it is an empty cell but when I
retrieve it by

GridView.Rows[index].Cells[0].Text.ToString().

It has the value of the cell from the first row.

What is happening here?

Bill

>> I have an cell which contains a field member which is filled with
>> String.Empty. When I retrieve the value in the cell with
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>
> What could be simpler...?

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Mark Rae [MVP] - 06 Aug 2007 22:33 GMT

> Ok that's fine. I won't make it more difficult then it is. :) But now I
> do have a real problem. I am retrieving the 3rd row which happens to have
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> What is happening here?

Difficult to tell without seeing your code but, if you do a View Source on
the page in question, you will see the HTML table rendered from the GridView
webcontrol - does that shed any light on it...?

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Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

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Bill Gower - 07 Aug 2007 00:15 GMT

I checked the source and rows 1 to 3 have an entry in the cell and rows 4
to 5 have &nbsp in the cell. When I step through the code and check the
value at the cell from row 4, it has the value from the cell in row 1.

Bill

>> Ok that's fine. I won't make it more difficult then it is. :) But now I
>> do have a real problem. I am retrieving the 3rd row which happens to
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> the page in question, you will see the HTML table rendered from the
> GridView webcontrol - does that shed any light on it...?

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Mark Rae [MVP] - 07 Aug 2007 07:59 GMT

>I checked the source and rows 1 to 3 have an entry in the cell and rows 4
>to 5 have &nbsp in the cell. When I step through the code and check the
>value at the cell from row 4, it has the value from the cell in row 1.

Please show the code you're using...

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Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

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Problem with empty cell value in GridView

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