Method to Find GridView Column Index by Name

Question

I\'m trying to write a small method to loop through and find a GridView Column by its Index, since it can change position based on what might be visible.

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Answer 1

I prefer collection iteration but why bother with the overhead of foreach and grid.Columns.IndexOf call in this case? Just iterate through array with an index.

private int GetColumnIndexByName(GridView grid, string name)
{
    for(int i = 0; i < grid.Columns.Count; i++)
    {
        if (grid.Columns[i].HeaderText.ToLower().Trim() == name.ToLower().Trim())
        {
            return i;
        }
    }

    return -1;
}

Answer 2

In case if you need a column itself and not just its index you can use some Linq magic:

DataControlField col=GridView1.Columns.Cast<DataControlField>().First(c => c.HeaderText == "Column_header")

Answer 3

Better solution which works for Datafield, SortExpression and headerText.

public static int GetBoundFieldIndexByName(this GridView gv,string name)
    {
        int index = 0;
        bool found = false;
        foreach (DataControlField c in gv.Columns)
        {
            if (c is BoundField)
            {
                BoundField field = (BoundField)c;
                if (name == field.DataField ||
                    name == field.SortExpression ||
                    name == field.HeaderText)
                {
                    found = true;
                    break;
                }
            }
            index++;
        }
        return found ? index : -1;
    }

Answer 4

Here's a VB version

Protected Function GetColumnIndexByHeaderText(grid As GridView, findHeader As String) As Integer
    Dim i As Integer = 0
    For i = 0 To grid.Columns.Count - 1
        If grid.Columns(i).HeaderText.ToLower().Trim() = findHeader.ToLower().Trim() Then
            Return i
        End If
    Next

    Return -1
End Function

Answer 5

This way, works for me (.NET Gridview):

    private int GetColumnIndexByName(GridView grid, string name)
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < grid.HeaderRow.Cells.Count; i++)
        {
            if (grid.HeaderRow.Cells[i].Text.ToLower().Trim() == name.ToLower().Trim())
            {
                return i;
            }
        }
        return -1;
    }

Answer 6

I figured it out, I needed to be using DataControlField and slightly different syntax.

The working version:

private int GetColumnIndexByName(GridView grid, string name)
    {
        foreach (DataControlField col in grid.Columns)
        {
            if (col.HeaderText.ToLower().Trim() == name.ToLower().Trim())
            {
                return grid.Columns.IndexOf(col);
            }
        }

        return -1;
    }