Gridview RowCommand event with DropDownList is not working

Question

I have created a few DropDownLists that get populated with data from a database. The first lines of the Dropdownlists are ListItem:

<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlChange_Requestor" runat="server" AppendDataBoundItems="True"  CssClass="ddlChange_Requestor">
    <asp:ListItem>Change Requestor</asp:ListItem>

I also have a GridView that has a RowCommand event on Select button.

When I press Select the DropDownLists will get back whatever value that the respected column/row has:

protected void gwActivity_RowCommand(object sender, GridViewCommandEventArgs e)
{
    {
        GridViewRow row = ((e.CommandSource as Control).NamingContainer as GridViewRow);
        txtActivity.Text = row.Cells[2].Text;
        ddlChange_Requestor.SelectedValue = row.Cells[10].Text;
    }
}

This works when Change Request column/row in the GridView has value but not when it's "white-space" / "Empty" / "Null". I do not really know how to fix it?

I would like to be able to do something like:

ddlChange_Requestor.SelectedValue = isnullOrwhitespace(row.Cells[10].Text , "Change Requestor");

However I would only want this in the background because I would like to have empty row in GridView but on RowCommand Select should understand that empty means ListItem value.

Is this possible?

Ejectment

what's your question here? – Jamin

ok one more thing; is DDL inside GridVIew? – Jamin

Did you problem solved? – Jamin

yes! VDWWD answer helped – Ejectment

Answer 1

Would it not simply be checking if the value in Cell 10 is empty?

if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(row.Cells[10].Text) && row.Cells[10].Text != " ")
{
    ddlChange_Requestor.SelectedValue = row.Cells[10].Text;
}
else
{
    ddlChange_Requestor.SelectedIndex = 0;
}

Assuming ddlChange_Requestor is a DropDown outside the GridView.

And if you are unsure if the cell value exists in the DLL, you can do a check first.

if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(row.Cells[10].Text))
{
    string value = row.Cells[10].Text;

    if (ddlChange_Requestor.Items.Cast<ListItem>().Any(x => x.Value == value))
    {
        ddlChange_Requestor.SelectedValue = value;
    }
    else
    {
        ddlChange_Requestor.SelectedIndex = 0;
    }
}

Resent

Hi, The first example did not work i still get error: row.Cells[10].Text = " " – Ejectment

The second example did work however if i have a value already selected in change requestor like "John" then the DDL won´t get back to default value of "change requestor" but rather stay as "John"? – Ejectment

And yes the DDL is outside the gridview – Ejectment

I've updated my answer. But figuring out how you might need to tweak the code a little yourself would come in handy in future programming problems. – Resent

Thank you this works :). i'm a "newbie" and trying my best and sometimes even i get stuck and need some help. – Ejectment

No problem. However keep in mind that working with cell values like that can give weird results. It is not a problem with string values, but when it comes to dates and decimals it is best to work with the source data since those types are converted to a string in the Cell Text. – Resent

Answer 2

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