ASP.NET control in GridView not found to exist in code behind

Question

I have a DropDownList that I would like to populate with column values from a DataBase. However, when I try to bind the DropDownList in code behind, the IDE keeps telling me:

Answer 1

Use this code to bound data to dropdown without using RowDataBound.

Create a function that'll bind the Data to dropdown as follow and call it in Page_Load event

Public void fill_gridView_dropDown()
{
    // your connection and query to retrieve dropdown data will go here 
    // this loop will go through all row in GridView
    foreach(GridViewRow row in your_gridView_Name.Rows) {
        DropDownList  dropDown = (DropDownList)row.FindControl("dropDownList_id");
        dropDown.DataSource = dataSource;
        dropDown.DataValueField = "ValueField";
        dropDown.DataTextField = "TextField";
        dropDown.DataBind();
    }
}

Please note that you have to bind GridView first, and then you have to bind your dropdown