findcontrol on textbox returns empty string

[Rimu Atkinson]

hi all

i use FindControl to get a textbox, and i get a textbox object, but it's
..Text property is empty.

some background info: i have a DataList, which has a template column in it,
and in that template column i define a textbox.

<asp:TemplateColumn HeaderText="Quantity">
<ItemTemplate>
<asp:TextBox id="Quantity" runat="server" Columns="4" MaxLength="3"
Text='<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Quantity") %>' width="40px"
/>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateColumn>

Later on, i want to go through all the rows in the datalist (called MyList),
and do some processing based on the contents of the textboxes, which may
have been changed by the user.

For i = 0 To MyList.Items.Count - 1

Dim quantityTxt As TextBox = CType(MyList.Items(i).FindControl("Quantity"),
TextBox)

'do some stuff here

Next

quantityTxt.Text is always vbNullstring. i have tried
MyList.Items(i).Cells(2).FindControl("Quantity") as well, which makes no
difference.

any idea why??

any help very much appreciated.

thanks

Rimu

[asneader]

I had a similar problem when creating controls dynmically on a page.
Make sure that the call that creates the datalist is not in a "If Not
IsPostBack Then" statement. The "dynamic" controls have to be
recreated when the page is submitted to get values from them. I hope
this helps.

"Rimu Atkinson" <ri***@paradise.net.removenospamthing.nz> wrote in message news:<Us********************@news02.tsnz.net>...

hi all

i use FindControl to get a textbox, and i get a textbox object, but it's
.Text property is empty.

some background info: i have a DataList, which has a template column in it,
and in that template column i define a textbox.

<asp:TemplateColumn HeaderText="Quantity">
<ItemTemplate>
<asp:TextBox id="Quantity" runat="server" Columns="4" MaxLength="3"
Text='<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Quantity") %>' width="40px"
/>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateColumn>

Later on, i want to go through all the rows in the datalist (called MyList),
and do some processing based on the contents of the textboxes, which may
have been changed by the user.

For i = 0 To MyList.Items.Count - 1

Dim quantityTxt As TextBox = CType(MyList.Items(i).FindControl("Quantity"),
TextBox)

'do some stuff here

Next

quantityTxt.Text is always vbNullstring. i have tried
MyList.Items(i).Cells(2).FindControl("Quantity") as well, which makes no
difference.

any idea why??

any help very much appreciated.

thanks

Rimu