Populating a dropdown list in a EditItemTemplate

[Starlight]

Hi,

How do I populate a DropDownList that is within a EditItemTemplate? I have tried to use the following code -
PayBandDropDownList.items.insert(0,"A Test Item")


But I get a NullException error. Basically I want to add a list of items that are from a database. I can't hard code these items in my asp page using "<asp:ListItem>" since these items may change in the database at a later date.

Here is a *some* of my code:


<asp:TemplateColumn HeaderText="Pay Band">
<ItemTemplate>
<asp:Label runat="server" Width="100"
Text='<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "PayBand") %>'/>
</ItemTemplate>
<EditItemTemplate>
<aspropDownList runat="server"
SelectedIndex='<%# GetPayBandIndex(Container.DataItem("PayBand")) %>'
id="edit_payband">

(These hard coded list items would be removed.)

<asp:listitem>BAND1</asp:listitem> <asp:listitem>BAND2</asp:listitem>
<asp:listitem>BAND3</asp:listitem>
<asp:listitem>BAND4</asp:listitem>
<asp:listitem>BAND5</asp:listitem>
<asp:listitem>BAND6</asp:listitem>
<asp:listitem>BAND7</asp:listitem>
<asp:listitem>BAND8</asp:listitem>
<asp:listitem>BAND9</asp:listitem>
<asp:listitem>BNDC1</asp:listitem>
<asp:listitem>BNDC2</asp:listitem>
<asp:listitem>BNDC3</asp:listitem>
<asp:listitem>BNDC4</asp:listitem>
<asp:listitem>BNDC5</asp:listitem>
<asp:listitem>BNDC6</asp:listitem>
</asp:dropdownlist>
</EditItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateColumn>


Public Function GetPayBandIndex(PayBand As String) As Integer
If PayBandIndex(PayBand) <> Nothing
Return CInt(PayBandIndex(PayBand))
Else
Return 0
End If
End Function

Sub emp_list_EditCommand(s As Object, e As DataGridCommandEventArgs)

emp_list.EditItemIndex = e.Item.ItemIndex

Dim PayBandDropDownList As DropDownList = e.Item.FindControl("edit_payband")

PayBandDropDownList.items.insert(0,"A Test Item")


BindData
End Sub


Any suggestions? Thanks.

[allida77]

Dim myDs as DataSet = New DataSet()

Function getmyDDL() as DataSet
		myDs = populate the dataset
		Return myDs 
End Function

Function GetSelectedIndex(id as integer) as Integer
		Dim iLoop as Integer
		Dim dt as DataTable
		dt = myDs.Tables(0)
		For iLoop = 0 to dt.Rows.Count - 1
			If Int32.Parse(id) = Int32.Parse(dt.Rows(iLoop)("dbIdfield")) Then
			     Return iLoop
		         End If
		Next iLoop
End Function
........

<EditItemTemplate>
	<asp:DropDownList runat="server" id="myDDL"
		DataValueField="fieldfromdb" 
                DataTextField="fieldfromdb"
		DataSource='<%# getmyDDL() %>'
                SelectedIndex='<%#
            GetSelectedIndex(DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem,"id"))  %>' />
</EditItemTemplate>

I used a dataset above but you can use whatever datsource you would like. I believe I initially found this a while back on 4guysfromrolla.

[Starlight]

Thanks for that. The DataSource = '<%# arraylist %>' is what I needed. That did the trick! Thanks.