How to Display ASP.NET GridView Header and Footer When No Data is Present?

The default behaviour of asp.net gridview is that it hides both Gridview header and footer when no data is present. You can note the absence of data (that is not a single row is available) by
putting text in EmptyDataTemplate of asp.net gridview.

---- other templates-----No data is present.<\EmptyDataTemplate>

<\asp:GridView>

But still you might want to show header and footer. What can we do? There exists a cheat! Just add an empty row to the datasource and bind your gridview to this datasource. Here goes the code.

DataTable table=new DataTable();

table=GetAllData(); //a function that fills the datatable

if(table.Rows.Count==0)

{

DataRow row = table.NewRow();

row[0] = "none";

table.Rows.Add(row);

gvTest.DataSource = table;

gvTest.DataBind();

}

Now it is nearly done! But one step is remaining. Now the first column of the first row will display "none". We do not want this. So we must hide it. How? Just create the RowDataBound event handler for your gridview.

---- other templates-----

No data is present.

<\EmptyDataTemplate>
<\asp:GridView>

Here goes the code for the rowdatabound event handler:

//invokes when a row is bound to data

protected void gvTest_RowDataBound(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)

{

if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.DataRow)

{

if(e.Row.Cells[0].Text=="none")

{

e.Row.Visible=false;

}

}

}

Note: You must explicitly enable footer to be shown. By default it is not shown. This way:

---- other templates-----

No data is present.

<\EmptyDataTemplate>

<\asp:GridView>

Now you are done. Happy programming!!