How to: Create multiple rows of controls in ASP.Net

Introduction

This articles illustrates how to create multiple rows of controls in an asp.net web page dynamically using C# code with the help of a Panel, table, Session and ViewState.

Details

Here I am using a panel as a place holder for the table.

First, I am adding a textbox to a cell and a checkbox to another cell, and then I am adding these two cells to a row of the table.

Here, I am using Session variable to store the state of the table which will be used after postback to restore the state of the table. Here, we can't use viewstate for storing the state of the table. I am using a ViewState variable to hold the state of the counter which store the number of the controls already created.

I am giving unique id for the textboxes and the checkboxes with the help of this counter.

Note - If we do not store the state of the table and the counter then the values of counter will be lost after the postback and also the state of the table will be lost after the postback.

Look at the code given below, it is very simple !!

using System;

using System.Data;

using System.Configuration;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.Security;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

public partial class Default : System.Web.UI.Page

{

    private int numOfColumns = 1;

    private int ctr = 0;

    Table table = null;

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

        if (!IsPostBack)

        {

            table = new Table();          

            table.ID = "tableBuild";

            Session["table"] = table;

            ViewState["ctr"] = ctr;

        }

        ctr = (Int32)ViewState["ctr"];

        table = (Table)Session["table"];

        Panel1.Controls.Add(table);

    }

    private void GenerateTable(int colsCount)

    {

       ctr++;       

       TableRow row = new TableRow();        

       TableCell cell = new TableCell(); 

       TextBox tb = new TextBox();

       tb.ID = "TextBoxRow_" + ctr;

       tb.Width = 80;

       // Add the control to the TableCell

       cell.Controls.Add(tb);

       // Add the TableCell to the TableRow

       row.Cells.Add(cell);

       TableCell cell1 = new TableCell();

       CheckBox cb = new CheckBox();

       cb.ID = "chkBox" + ctr;

       cb.Width = 40;

       // Add the control to the TableCell

       cell1.Controls.Add(cb);

       // Add the TableCell to the TableRow

       row.Cells.Add(cell1);           

       // Add the TableRow to the Table

       table.Rows.Add(row);

       Session["table"] = table;

       ViewState["ctr"] = ctr;

    } 

    protected void btnAdd_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

        numOfColumns = 1;

        //Generate the Table based from the inputs

        GenerateTable(numOfColumns);      

    }

}

All the queries are welcome!!