How to make asp:GridView sortable?

Question

i have an asp:GridView control, which i've set the AllowSorting="True" property on:

<asp:GridView ID="gridUsers" runat="server" PageSize="100" ShowHeaderWhenEmpty="True"
   Width="100%" AllowSorting="True" onrowcreated="gridUsers_RowCreated" 
   onsorting="gridUsers_Sorting">
</asp:GridView>

At design time the grid looks sortable:

But at runtime only the middle column is sortable:

How do i make an asp:GridView sortable in ASP.NET?

---

Note: The asp:GridView with AllowSorting requires a Sorting event handler to be present:

protected void gridUsers_Sorting(object sender, GridViewSortEventArgs e)
{
   //asp:GridView will throw an exception if a Sorting event handler isn't present
}

Update: i realized what's special about the Description column. It's the only column whose display name is correct from the database as-is. The remaining columns i have to fix the display name to be presentable:

protected void gridUsers_RowCreated(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
   e.Row.Cells[0].Visible = false; //UserGUID
   e.Row.Cells[1].Text = "User name";
   e.Row.Cells[2].Text = "Full name";
   //3=Description
   e.Row.Cells[4].Text = "E-mail";
   e.Row.Cells[5].Text = "Active";
       e.Row.Cells[5].Visible = false;
   e.Row.Cells[6].Text = "Account type";
 }

Now i just have to figure out the tricky part; and make columns sortable.

Solution 1

this code will definitely help you:

In the GridView, Make the Property AllowSorting = "True" and in the GridView Columns give like this

<asp:BoundField DataField="UserName" HeaderText="User Name" SortExpression="UserName" />
<asp:BoundField DataField="FullName" HeaderText="Full Name" SortExpression="FullName" />

and also use the below coding:

protected void gv_Sorting(object sender, GridViewSortEventArgs e)
{
    try
    {
        string sortExpression = e.SortExpression;
        ViewState["z_sortexpresion"] = e.SortExpression;
        if (GridViewSortDirection == SortDirection.Ascending)
        {
            GridViewSortDirection = SortDirection.Descending;
            SortGridView(sortExpression, "DESC");
        }
        else
        {
            GridViewSortDirection = SortDirection.Ascending;
            SortGridView(sortExpression, "ASC");
        }
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        return ex.Message.ToString();
    }
}
public SortDirection GridViewSortDirection
{
    get
    {
        if (ViewState["sortDirection"] == null)
            ViewState["sortDirection"] = SortDirection.Ascending;
        return (SortDirection)ViewState["sortDirection"];
    }
    set
    {
        ViewState["sortDirection"] = value;
    }

}
private void SortGridView(string sortExpression, string direction)
{
    DTSorting = new DataView(DTSorting, "", sortExpression + " " + direction, DataViewRowState.CurrentRows).ToTable();
    gv.DataSource = DTSorting;
    gv.DataBind();
}
public DataTable DTSorting
{
    get
    {
        if (ViewState["Sorting"] != null)
        {
            return (DataTable)ViewState["Sorting"];
        }
        else
            return null;
    }
    set
    {
        ViewState["Sorting"] = value;
    }
}

Here, Consider "DTSorting" is the DataTable by which you binds the GridView "gv".

Solution 2

protected void gridUsers_Sorting(object sender, GridViewSortEventArgs e)
{
    DataTable dt = Session["SortedTable"] as DataTable;

    if (dt != null)
    {

      //Sort the data.
      dt.DefaultView.Sort = e.SortExpression + " " + GetSortDirection(e.SortExpression);
      gridUsers.DataSource = Session["SortTable"];
      gridUsers.DataBind();
    }
}

Adapted from this msdn example: