How to extract data out of your datacontrol (asp.net formview, detailsview or gridview) using FindControl or ExtractValuesFromCell method?

Most of the times asp.net programmers need to extract data out of the asp.net datacontrols like formview, detailsview or gridview. Mostly we use FindControl method of the data control for this purpose. And another method ExtractValuesFromCell is also entertained to achieve the goal. It would be very interesting to throw a little light upon both of them.

Naturally I am familiar with the FindControl method of the datacontrols. For example, to find a dropdownlist in the formview or detailsview control, I would call:

DropDownList ddlTest=FormView1.FindControl("DropDownList1") as DropDownList;

Similarly, we could search for an asp.net control in a particular row of a gridview control. For example:

GridViewRow row=GridView1.Rows[5]; // here we are dealing with the fifth row
TextBox textName=row.Cells[2].FindControl("textboxName") as TextBox; //here, there is a textbox with id textboxName in the second cell of the row
if(textName!=null) //check if such textbox was found in the specified cell or the specified row
{
string name=textName.Text;
}

Practically we need to get a control from the data control in special events of the control like inserting, inserted, updating, updated, deleting, deleted, selectedindexchanging, selectedindexchanged etc. Combining the FindControl method with such event handlers help customize data during data operations (add,edit,delete) and provides flexibility to display data from database or other data sources (xml, csv, programmatically created datatables etc).

Before discussing ExtractValuesFromCell, I would like to drop one note. Please note that some standard controls in some data controls may be available for extracting only in the particular mode of the data controls. Confusing? Don't worry. This simple example will clarify it. Say, we do have a textbox in the edititemtemplate of a detailsview. To reference this textbox and extract value from it, we can use the findcontrol method only if we are in edit mode. In other modes we will get null reference (and possibly null reference exception may be thrown when we try to extract text or other properties). That is why I have checked for the null in the code above before reading text value from the textbox.

Now let's focus on ExtractValuesFromCell. There goes a popular article on Extracting data out of your datacontrol which discusses ExtractValuesFromCell method to get data from the controls in datacontrols like gridview, formview or detailsview. (The title of this article is inspired from it! And I have tried to make it as useful as I can). Please refer to the heavily discussed article to understand what the author davidfoul has discovered and what are the benefits of using ExtractValuesFromCell method to extract data out of a datacontrol.

After you have been through the article, you sure would like to ask which method to use- FindControl or this ExtractValuesFromCell? This is what I commented to the author:

Hi dear author,

I came here following the discussion on the asp.net forum: forums.asp.net/.../1362718.aspx

I have always been using FindControl() method: much easier and handy. You need not to write (and call everytime) the functions to extract values (or cells) using ExtractValuesFromCell.

This ExtractValuesFromCell way of extracting values from cell is just another way around it. So what's wrong to go with FindControl. Please give your opinion (perhaps you could update the post to add a sections: Why to not use FindControl(); I am requesting this because the argument among developers would go longer!).

Hey, this could be the advantage: People sometimes ask how to get all the values from my gridview since I have been editing and updating it, so changing the original value from the datasource. In such case this trick could help a lot.

Thanks.

And our generous author davidfoul has replied his kind views:

@sangam100 I had this same question about FindControl on the forum. Here is what I said:

It's not the use of FindControl that makes my spine tingle its the MISuse and ABuse of it that does. FindControl is a good method and very useful, but look at the name of method, FindControl. Everything has a purpose right? If I'm trying to find a control then i'll call find control. If I'm trying to get data out of a control I might call find control or some other API that is better at getting data, i.e ExtractRowValues. I think that there is alot of knowledge out there, good and bad, about using these data controls and I just want to try to set some things straight by shedding some more light on how stuff works (I love that website).

Before I go lemme show you what I mean by picking the right API.  Lets make a new control IntControl. IntControl has a method int GetValue(). Now OO principals tell us to not break the abstraction by letting consumers grab at the internals but IntControl derives from control, and by default, there is alot of other things exposed to the consumer that shouldn't be. Now we know that IntControl uses a textbox internally so I could never call GetValue and instead write:

int value;

Int32.TryParse(((TextBox)IntControl.Controls[0]).Text, out value);

Everything will work fine until the author of IntControl decides to use a div instead of a textbox.

The REAL lesson to take away from the blog post is to try your best to follow the contract provided by a class or an interface (in this case the DataControl).

You can read comments, views, suggestions of so many enthusiastic asp.net web developers both in the original site by the author and a post in the forums.asp.net/.../1362718.aspx. Please comment in the respective sites to put your opinions to the articles. However you can comment as always on this article regarding my perspectives. Thank you. Happy Programming!