Why one column?
Hi All
I am writing an ASP.NET program that adds TemplateFields to add columns to a GridView programmatically. Within one of these fields, I want to add a label that contains text that consists of two numbers in a string, the first is an integer and the second a percentage. I want these numbers to line up but of course the number of digits vary: 100%, 10%, 1% and so on. So I want to add varying number of spaces between the two numbers. I have tried PadLeft and PadRight but always the spaces are collapsed to one. So I have even tried clumsy code like this in desperation:
If p = 0 Then 'if percent is zero print a blank (not 0%)
l.Text = ""
ElseIf p > 0 And p < 0.1 Then
l.Text = String.Format("{0![[:#]](http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/emoticons/emotion-16.gif)
,###}", Integer.Parse(RawData)) & Space(4) & String.Format("{0#0%}", p)
ElseIf p >= 0.1 And p < 1 Then
l.Text = String.Format("{0,###}", Integer.Parse(RawData)) & Space(3) & String.Format("{0#0%}", p)
ElseIf p = 1 Then
l.Text = String.Format("{0,###}", Integer.Parse(RawData)) & Space(2) & String.Format("{0#0%}", p)
End If
I think that if I was writing html something like <span spaces="Preserve"> might do the trick. But how do I specify that in a TemplateField that is adding columns to a GridView programmatically?
There must be an easier way!
Flummoxed
Geoffrey
Hi,
Try using vbTab in your statements.
E.G.
Code Snippet
TextBox1.Text = number1.ToString & vbTab & number2.ToString
What you could do, in case you have numbers like;
12.3456 and
14.98765432
is use Math.Round( number1, 4 ) ' to round to 4 digits ( or whatever you like ) before your output command like the one above.
Regards,
S_DS
Hi S_DS
Many, many thanks for getting back to me on this and for your suggestions. Unforunately, they don’t seem to work.
Perhaps it would help if I explained what I was trying to do a little more fully.
I need to add columns to this GridView programmatically because I want to keep the column headings brief (to keep the table compact) but provide a Tooltip on the headings with a full description (which I can’t do with AutogenerateColumns true). Hence I am into the whole business of adding TemplateFields using a Public Class that implements Itemplate. I am using MSDN’s "How To: Create ASP.NET Web Server Control Templates Dynamically" as a guide (although this refers to a DataGrid) and also Mike Gunderloy’s elegant code in "Dynamic Template Columns in the ASP.NET 2.0 GridView Control" (although I have had to translate this from C#) as another model. And all this works fine.
But I want to give the user the option of displaying integers, percent or both in each column (nothing after the decimal point). Which also works fine, except that I can’t add them to the same label (actually a hyperlink) because I can’t format the leading spaces before the percent. Very frustrating!
I suppose I could create a tiny table with just two cells in the DataLabel_DataBinding event handler – but I don’t know how to do this. When I muddle html into this code it doesn’t work:
Dim l As HyperLink = CType(sender, HyperLink)
' get the containing row
Dim row As GridViewRow = CType(l.NamingContainer, GridViewRow)
' get the data and bind it to the hyperlink
Dim RawData As String
RawData = DataBinder.Eval(row.DataItem, columnName)
l.Text = ‘and so on
W
hat can you recommend?Kind regards
Geoffrey
 Geoffrey MH wrote: |
| But I want to give the user the option of displaying integers, percent or both in each column (nothing after the decimal point). Which also works fine, except that I can’t add them to the same label (actually a hyperlink) because I can’t format the leading spaces before the percent. Very frustrating! What can you recommend?Kind regards
Geoffrey
| |
Hi,
In HTML you can use one or more   followed by a semicolon in a string for a space character.
See >>
http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_table_nbsp
and try this HTML in the "Try It editor" >>
Code Snippet
<html>
<body>
<table border="1">
<tr>
<td>Some text</td>
<td>Some text</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Some text</td>
</tr>
</table>
As you can see, one of the cells has no border. That is because it is empty. Try to insert a space in the cell. Still it has no border.
The trick is to insert a no-breaking space in the cell.
No-breaking space is a character entity. If you don't know what a character entity is, read the chapter about it.
The no-breaking space entity starts with an ampersand ("&"),
then the letters "nbsp", and ends with a semicolon (";")
</body>
</html>
I know you may know that already? If not click on the "Edit the text and click me" button on that page towards the top left corner.
http://www.w3schools.com/ is a great site and it includes a section on ASP >>
http://www.w3schools.com/asp/default.asp
I hope it is of some help to you?
Regards,
S_DS
Hi S_DS
That's the problem...
label.text = "a" + + + + + "b"
comes out as "a b" not "a b",
Geoffrey
| Geoffrey MH wrote: |
| Hi S_DS That's the problem... label.text = "a" + + + + + "b" comes out as "a b" not "a b", 
Geoffrey
| |
Hi Geoffrey,
Take a look at letter spacing using in-line styles or CSS ( cascading style sheet ) positioning.>>
http://w3schools.com/css/tryit.asp?filename=trycss_letter-spacing
Regards,
S_DS
Hi S_DS
Thanks for the tip.
The problem is that I am doing this in the context of a dynamically created GridView. Here is a bit more of the surrounding code. I hope this helps explain the situation
' event handler to perform the data binding
' called when data is bound to the GridView
Private Sub DataLabel_DataBinding(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
' get the control that raised this event
Dim l As HyperLink = CType(sender, HyperLink)
' get the containing row
Dim row As GridViewRow = CType(l.NamingContainer, GridViewRow)
' get the data and bind it to the label
Dim RawData As String
RawData = DataBinder.Eval(row.DataItem, columnName)
Dim p As Single
If cumulativeSum > 0 Then
p = RawData / cumulativeSum
Else
p = 0
End If
Select Case displaySelected
Case 0 'display Numbers only
l.Text = String.Format("{0,###}", Integer.Parse(RawData))
Case 1 'display Percent only
If p = 0 Then 'if percent is zero print a blank (not 0%)
l.Text = ""
Else
l.Text = String.Format("{0#0%}", p)
End If
Case 2 'display Both, adding spaces to keep digits aligned
If p = 0 Then 'if percent is zero print a blank (not 0%)
l.Text = ""
ElseIf p > 0 And p < 0.1 Then
l.Text = String.Format("{0,###}", Integer.Parse(RawData)) & vbTab & vbTab & vbTab & vbTab & String.Format("{0#0%}", p)
ElseIf p >= 0.1 And p < 1 Then
l.Text = String.Format("{0,###}", Integer.Parse(RawData)) & vbTab & vbTab & vbTab & String.Format("{0#0%}", p)
ElseIf p = 1 Then
l.Text = String.Format("{0,###}", Integer.Parse(RawData)) & vbTab & vbTab & vbTab & String.Format("{0#0%}", p)
End If
End Select
l.ToolTip = toolTipText
l.CssClass = "Normal"
End Sub
What do you think?
Regards
Geoffrey
PS sorry about the smileys
Hi S_DS
I have given up. Eiher my question is too dumb or too hard for this forum. I guess it is tied up somewhere with significant and insignificant spaces. I am now showing my numbers and percent like this...
label.Text = String.Format("{0,###}", Integer.Parse(RawData)) & "(" & String.Format("{0#0%}", p) & ")"
Not pretty - the columns still don't line up - but, hell, what can you do?
Regards
Geoffrey
Is there a reason why you don't just make two columns instead of one column with a label in it that has two values? If you had two columns, you could specify right-justify for both and they would line up as long as your formatting was consistent between rows.
Hi Richard
That's a good question. Basically it's because I want the same heading over both columns. Like all things this code started easy enough. I wanted a table of numbers, but then I wanted Tooltips on the headings, then I wanted to generate the numbers from a pivot table, then I wanted to give the viewer three options: just to view the numbers, to see them as percent or to see both. And I wanted each GridView to look the same.
Perhaps there is a way to add a number and a calculated percent within a GridView cell programmatically, using DetailsView perhaps, but I don't see how and I thought it should be easier than this. Is there a way to add html in a label's string so that it renders two numbers correctly aligned - that's the question.
All suggestions welcomed
Geoffrey
Hi Geoffrey,
This is sort of a shot in the dark... have you tried making sure your grid output font is a monospace font like Courier rather than a font that is not monospace (like Arial, Times New Roman, etc...)? That in conjunction with should allow you to line things up.
The down-side of course is that Courier is a rather ugly looking font.
Hope this helps.
