Retrieve value from GridTemplateColumn in server side (Telerik RadGrid)

Question

I have the following code in my aspx page (simplified):

<telerik:RadGrid ID="rgd_grid" runat="server">
<MasterTableView>
<Columns> 
     <telerik:GridTemplateColumn UniqueName="Unique" HeaderText="Header" DataField="dataField">
     <ItemTemplate>
          <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "expression") %>
     </ItemTemplate>
     </telerik:GridTemplateColumn> 
</Columns>
</MasterTableView>

I just need to do a loop in the grid to retrieve the values of the cells in the code-behind, but I've find no way to get the value in the "Eval" expression... I've try the following:

rgd_grid.MasterTableView.Items[0]["Unique"].Text;

But the text property is empty, while all the others are correct. Actually, I've tried a lot of other things, but this seems to be the most close to the objective.

Regards, I appreciate every help!

Solution 1

Are you sure the item returned is not the header or something like that? I think the header is included in the results, but could be wrong. Add a check like:

var item = rgd_grid.MasterTableView.Items[0] as GridDataItem;
if (item != null)
    string text = item["Unique"].Text;

If that doesn't work, you can always resort to using a Label control within the template, and finding the control by ID.

Solution 2

You should be using datakeys to retrieve values from the grid.

You can use the DataKeyNames property on the MasterTableView to specify the columns you need, like this:

<telerik:RadGrid ID="RadGrid1" runat="server" ...>
    <MasterTableView DataKeyNames="Col1, Col2, Col3" ...>

And then in the code-behind:

string col1 = RadGrid1.Items[0].GetDataKeyValue("Col1").ToString();