How do I access the text inside a TemplateField within DetailsView?

[ajrock2000]

I am using a DetailsView to display some data. I am basically getting a firstname, and lastname fields from a database (the database cannot be changed, nor the queries), and I must concatenate the [lastname], [firstname]. I want to incorporate this into a detailsview like so...

 <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Name:">
    <ItemTemplate>
        <%#Eval("firstname")%>, <%#Eval("lastname")%>
    </ItemTemplate>                           
</asp:TemplateField>

I am doing this because I need the detailsview to make the row not visible if there is no data present in the field. So I have an event like so...(this event is located in a class which extends the detailsview control)

        Protected Overrides Sub OnDataBound(ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
            Dim row As DetailsViewRow
            For Each row In Me.Rows
                If String.IsNullOrEmpty(row.Cells(1).Text) Or row.Cells(1).Text = " " Then
                    row.Visible = False
                End If
            Next
        End Sub
 

When the row being tested is the templatefield row shown above, the value (row.Cells(1).Text) returns an empty string, yet all boundfields return their values fine, and it works as expected. Also if I take the event out, the data returns fine! It just doesn't seem to be available in the life-cycle at the time of the databound event, which is extremely strange.

I do not want to add a control inside the itemtemplate, I tried that and it worked, but is there anyway to access the data inside the templatefield for how it is shown? I posted this on Asp.net forums if you would like to take a look there too.

http://forums.asp.net/t/1203270.aspx

Apparently, it must bind the Eval() statments at a later time...

Thanks!

[ajrock2000]

anyone? I need to know this badly!