Behold the Power of the DataGrid!
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This article will convince you that it truly is time to make the switch over to .NET. I will explain how one component could simplify our programming lives to a hardly fathomable extent. Microsoft has put a lot of thought into this RAD approach to hooking our applications to a database, delivering to us the DataGrid. I will explain how to use a DataGrid in its naked form, as well as with some formatting, and finally how to sort the data.
Introduction
As I was studying and learning about these new-fangled components introduced by ASP.NET called Server Controls, it was as if things just kept getting better and better. Seriously, I am the type to give credit where credit is due, and I just have to say "well done" to MS on this one. You see, the HTML and Validation controls are pretty cool. The state-full behavior of a Web control is really cool. Then I got to the data-bound controls -- they are extremely cool.
I was thrown back in time to the first inventory application I worked on. If only I had the option of using .NET, I could have saved so much time! So many repetitious and tedious lines of ASP code to provide both simple and advanced functions, all of which are encapsulated in these pre-built controls. A few simple lines give us options that are anything but simple.
Of all the server controls, the most impressive to me was the DataGrid. Although it belongs in the data-bound controls family, I must say that it blows away the Repeater or DataList controls in power and versatility. While those two have their uses, I am going to concentrate on the usefulness of the DataGrid in this article, and I'm going to have to do two articles to even do it justice! Hmm, my wife says that I have a tendency to build things like movies up way too much, and then they're not as great as I made them sound (UHF for one). So, at risk of building this up too much, let's just get to the point!
Next: What on Earth is a DataGrid? >>
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