ASP.NET Tutorial. How to use Repeater

Publish date: Tuesday October 28, 2008

In this article, I'll show you how to use Repeater in ASP.NET page.

Here is an example of Repeater:

I store the user in table "Client_NetroStar" in SQL Server. There are five fields in the table:

ID
Login
FirstName
LastName
DateAdded

1. First Step - Insert the Repeater Control on page.

Repeater control allows you to create templates. For example you can use a template to customize the layout of the individual rows.

HeaderTemplate - template for elements that you want to render once before your ItemTemplate section.
ItemTemplate - template for elements that are rendered once per row of data.
AlternatingItemTemplate - template for elements that are rendered every other row of data. This allows you to alternate background colors, for example.
SeparatorTemplate - template for elements to render between each row, such as line breaks.
FooterTemplate - template for elements that you want to render once after your ItemTemplate section.

Here is the part of the “ClientNetroStar.aspx” page that contains Repeater:

<asp:Repeater ID="rptList" runat="server" OnItemDataBound="rptList_ItemDataBound">
   <HeaderTemplate>
      <table>
         <tr>
            <th>
               <asp:Label ID="Label14" Text="Login" runat="server"></asp:Label>
            </th>
            <th>
               <asp:Label ID="Label1" Text="First Name" runat="server"></asp:Label>
            </th>
            <th>
               <asp:Label ID="Label2" Text="Last Name" runat="server"></asp:Label>
            </th>
            <th>
               <asp:Label ID="Label3" Text="Date Added" runat="server"></asp:Label>
            </th>
            <th>
               <asp:Label ID="Label6" Text="Delete" runat="server"></asp:Label>
            </th>
         </tr>
   </HeaderTemplate>
   <ItemTemplate>
      <tr>
         <td>
            <asp:LinkButton ID="lbnLogin" Text='<%# Eval("Login") %>' runat="server"
               OnClick="lnkClient_Click" CommandArgument='<%# Eval("ID").ToString() %>'>
            </asp:LinkButton>
         </td>
         <td>
            <asp:LinkButton ID="lbnFirstName" Text='<%# Eval("FirstName").ToString() %>' runat="server"
               OnClick="lnkClient_Click" CommandArgument='<%# Eval("ID").ToString() %>'>
            </asp:LinkButton>
         </td>
         <td>
            <asp:LinkButton ID="LinkButton2" Text='<%# Eval("LastName").ToString() %>' runat="server"
               OnClick="lnkClient_Click" CommandArgument='<%# Eval("ID").ToString() %>'>
            </asp:LinkButton>
         </td>
         <td>
            <asp:LinkButton ID="LinkButton1" Text='<%# Eval("DateAdded") %>' runat="server"
               OnClick="lnkClient_Click" CommandArgument='<%# Eval("ID").ToString() %>'>
            </asp:LinkButton>
         </td>
         <td>
            <asp:LinkButton ID="lbnDelete" Text="delete"  runat="server" 
               OnClick="lbnDelete_Click" CommandArgument='<%# Eval("ID").ToString() %>'>
            </asp:LinkButton>
         </td>
      </tr>
   </ItemTemplate>
   <FooterTemplate>
      </table>
   </FooterTemplate>
 </asp:Repeater>

The Repeater has an attribute ID= "rptList". It is used in Code Behind (ClientNetroStar.aspx.cs) . Repeater uses the HeaderTemplate to insert <table> . Then it uses the ItemTemplate to display a LinkButton control that has our data in it. I'll come back to this in the next step.

The FooterTemplate is not necessary, but I put it in </table>.

2. Second Step - Get the Data to Repeater.

Here is the Page_Load event in the Code Behind file.

The first five lines open a database connection and retrieve the contents of the Client_NetroStar table. The last two lines bind our Repeater control to the DataReader.

We can use also MyGeneration to get data. Read more in Introduction to myGeneration and dOOdads.

Author: Mariusz Siergijewicz

Latest Tutorials Click here to see All Tutorials

ASP.NET Tutorial. How to use Repeater

In this article, I'll show you how to use Repeater in ASP.NET page.

1. First Step - Insert the Repeater Control on page.

2. Second Step - Get the Data to Repeater.

Flash tutorial - How to send data to ASP.NET and read the answer

ASP.NET Tutorial. How to use Repeater

Connection String for MS SQL database