ASP.NET Repeater bind List<string>

Question

I am binding a List<string> to a Repeater control. Now I want to use the Eval function to display the contents in ItemTemplate like

<%# Eval("NAME") %>.  

But I am not sure what I should use instead of NAME.

Solution 1

Just use <%# Container.DataItem.ToString() %>

If you are worried about null values you may want to refactor to this (.NET 6+)

<asp:Repeater ID="repeater" runat="server">
    <ItemTemplate>
        <%# Container.DataItem?.ToString() ?? string.Empty%>
    </ItemTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>

Note if you are using less than .NET 6 you cannot use the null-conditional operator Container.DataItem?.ToString()

Solution 2

Set the ItemType to System.String

<asp:Repeater ItemType="System.String" runat="server">
    <ItemTemplate>
        <%# Item %>
    </ItemTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>

Solution 3

rptSample.DataSource = from c in lstSample select new { NAME = c };

in the repeater you put

<%# Eval("NAME") %>

Solution 4

This should work just fine:

<ItemTemplate>
   <%=this.GetDataItem().ToString() %>
</ItemTemplate>

Solution 5

you have to use the databind syntax here or it will not work.

<%# this.GetDataItem().ToString() %>

View more solutions

Comments

[Matthew Lock]

Some examples use <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "NAME") %> instead of simply using Eval. What's the difference?

[Jonathan van de Veen]

Note that the ItemType property is introduced in .NET Framework 4.5.