Introduction
In Part
1 of this article series we
discussed how to simply display data with a DataList Control but now in this
article we will discuss how to display data in multiple columns with a DataList
Control.
Displaying Data in Multiple Columns with DataList
Control
It is very simple to render the contents of a DataList control into a
multi-column table in which each data item occupies a separate table cell. Two
properties modify the layout of the HTML table rendered by the DataList control;
they are:
-
RepeatColumns: The
number of columns to display.
-
RepeatDirection: The
direction to render the cells. Possible values are Horizontal and Vertical.
Here is the example
given below to display the contents of the Movies database table in a
three-column layout:
![display-data-in-multiple-column-in-vb.net.gif]()
<%@ Page Language="VB" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD
XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<script runat="server">
</script>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head id="Head1" runat="server">
<style type="text/css">
</style>
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div class="content">
<asp:DataList
id="dlstMovies"
DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1"
RepeatColumns="3"
GridLines="Both"
Runat="server">
<ItemTemplate>
<br />
<b><%#Eval("Title")%></b>
<br />
Directed by:
<%#Eval("Director") %>
<br />
Box Office Totals:
<%# Eval("BoxOfficeTotal")%>
<br />
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:DataList>
</div>
<asp:SqlDataSource ID="SqlDataSource1" runat="server" ConnectionString="<%$ConnectionStrings:DatabaseConnectionString1 %>"
ProviderName="<%$ ConnectionStrings:DatabaseConnectionString1.ProviderName %>"
SelectCommand="SELECT
Id,Title,Director,BoxOfficeTotal FROM Movies">
</asp:SqlDataSource>
</form>
</body>
</html>
Notice that the DataList control in the above example includes a RepeatColumns
property that has the value 3. If we set the RepeatDirection property to the
value Horizontal and do not assign a value to the RepeatColumns property, then
the DataList renders its data items horizontally without end. We can display
data items in multiple columns when the DataList is in Flow layout mode. In that
case, "<br>" tags are used to create the row breaks.
Note: This
article is continued in the next part.