Some developer emailed me and asked that how can he extract TextBox text when the TextBox is inside the GridView control. So, I implemented few lines of code to access DropDownList, TextBox and also ListBox which are inside the GridView control.

First you need to populate the DropDownList and ListBox object.

 // This method also Populates the ListBox should be called PopulateDropDownAndListBox() :) 
    public DataSet BindDropDownList()
    {
        SqlConnection myConnection = new SqlConnection(GetConnectionString());
        SqlDataAdapter ad = new SqlDataAdapter("SELECT [Name] FROM tblPerson", myConnection);
        DataSet ds = new DataSet();
        ad.Fill(ds, "tblPerson");

        return ds; 
    }

Now you need to call this function from the HTML source so it populates when the page binds.

<ItemTemplate>
<asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" DataTextField="Name" DataValueField = "Name" DataSource= '<%# BindDropDownList() %>' runat="server">
 </asp:DropDownList>
</ItemTemplate>

Finally, here is the simple code to access different controls inside the GridView control.

 protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        // Iterates through the rows of the GridView control
        foreach (GridViewRow row in GridView1.Rows)
        {
            // Selects the text from the TextBox which is inside the GridView control
            string textBoxText = ((TextBox)row.FindControl("TextBox1")).Text;
            Response.Write(textBoxText);
            // Selects the text from the DropDownList which is inside the GridView control
            string dropDownListText = ((DropDownList)row.FindControl("DropDownList1")).SelectedItem.Value;
            Response.Write(dropDownListText);
            // Selects items from the ListBox which is inside the GridView control 
            ListBox myListBox = (ListBox)row.FindControl("ListBox1"); 

            foreach(ListItem selectedItem in myListBox.Items) 
            {
                // Checks if the item in the ListBox is selected or not 
                if (selectedItem.Selected)
                {
                    // Print the value of the item if its selected
                    Response.Write(selectedItem.Value); 
                }
                
            }}

Pretty easy and simple right! And for all the VB.NET GEEKS here is the code in VB.NET. I just used the C# to VB.NET convertor  for this conversion.  

 Public DataSet BindDropDownList()
    {
        Dim myConnection As SqlConnection =  New SqlConnection(GetConnectionString()) 
        Dim ad As SqlDataAdapter =  New SqlDataAdapter("SELECT [Name] FROM tblPerson",myConnection) 
        Dim ds As DataSet =  New DataSet() 
        ad.Fill(ds, "tblPerson")
 
        Return ds
    }



protected void Button1_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        ' Iterates through the rows of the GridView control
        Dim row As GridViewRow
        For Each row In GridView1.Rows
            ' Selects the text from the TextBox which is inside the GridView control
            Dim textBoxText As String = (CType(row.FindControl("TextBox1"), TextBox)).Text 
            Response.Write(textBoxText)
            ' Selects the text from the DropDownList which is inside the GridView control
            Dim dropDownListText As String = (CType(row.FindControl("DropDownList1"), DropDownList)).SelectedItem.Value 
            Response.Write(dropDownListText)
            ' Selects items from the ListBox which is inside the GridView control 
            Dim myListBox As ListBox = CType(row.FindControl("ListBox1"), ListBox)
 
            Dim selectedItem As ListItem
            For Each selectedItem In myListBox.Items
                ' Checks if the item in the ListBox is selected or not 
                if (selectedItem.Selected)
                {
                    ' Print the value of the item if its selected
                    Response.Write(selectedItem.Value) 
                }
 
            Next
        Next

powered by IMHO