GridView DataFormatString for handling strings? asp.net (C# code behind)

[ahoyer]

Hey,

does anyone know of a way (or an expression) to format strings into proper capitalization using a DataFormatString in an asp:boundfield.

eg.I'm wanting to turn "john smith" into "John Smith"

thanks in adavance

[nateraaaa]

Hey,

does anyone know of a way (or an expression) to format strings into proper capitalization using a DataFormatString in an asp:boundfield.

eg.I'm wanting to turn "john smith" into "John Smith"

thanks in adavance

OK. After playing around with the RowDataBound event I found a way to accomplish what you are trying to do. You will need to use a MatchEvaluator and a StringBuilder to get this to work. See code below.

using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
 
protected void gvResults_RowDataBound(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
        {
            if(e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.DataRow)
            {
                Search search = new Search(); //create a new instance of your page.
                MatchEvaluator evaluator = new MatchEvaluator(search.CapitalizeWord);
 
                //the @ means do not escape anymore
                Regex re = new Regex(@"\w+");
                string output = re.Replace(e.Row.Cells[2].Text, evaluator);
                e.Row.Cells[2].Text = output;
            }
        }
 
        public string CapitalizeWord(Match match)
        {
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(match.Value);
 
            //Take the first letter, capitalize it, and set it back to the first letter.
            sb[0] = Char.ToUpper(sb[0]);
            return sb.ToString();
        }

This has been tested on one word only. You may need to add additional code to make this work for your last name.

Nathan

[ahoyer]

OK. After playing around with the RowDataBound event I found a way to accomplish what you are trying to do. You will need to use a MatchEvaluator and a StringBuilder to get this to work. See code below.

using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
 
protected void gvResults_RowDataBound(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
        {
            if(e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.DataRow)
            {
                Search search = new Search(); //create a new instance of your page.
                MatchEvaluator evaluator = new MatchEvaluator(search.CapitalizeWord);
 
                //the @ means do not escape anymore
                Regex re = new Regex(@"\w+");
                string output = re.Replace(e.Row.Cells[2].Text, evaluator);
                e.Row.Cells[2].Text = output;
            }
        }
 
        public string CapitalizeWord(Match match)
        {
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(match.Value);
 
            //Take the first letter, capitalize it, and set it back to the first letter.
            sb[0] = Char.ToUpper(sb[0]);
            return sb.ToString();
        }

This has been tested on one word only. You may need to add additional code to make this work for your last name.

Nathan

thanks very much for the help, but how would i implement this so that when the gridview is populated, that it calls these functions to format only one column?

[nateraaaa]

thanks very much for the help, but how would i implement this so that when the gridview is populated, that it calls these functions to format only one column?

When you reference the Cell number that you want to modify. The cells for that column will be updated with the text formatting. In my example I used Cell[2].Text which is the 3rd column in the grid.

Nathan

[ahoyer]

thanks very much for the help, but how would i implement this so that when the gridview is populated, that it calls these functions to format only one column?

hey forget what i said, i found an easier way to get it done, all i had to do was just get the grid view to add a small div tag around the words i wanted capitalized, i did this by setting the DataFormatString to the string below.

DataFormatString="<div style="text-transform:capitalize">{0}</div>"

when the page loads, it creates something like this:
[HTML]
<div style="text-transform:capitalize">some_text</div> [/HTML]

thanks again for your help, and i hope this helps other people!