Is it possible to use Data-Binding Expressions directly in markup to show/hide content?

Question

I would like to do something like:

<%# if((bool)Eval("IsDisabled")){ %><span>Disabled</span><% } 
else { %><span>Active</span><% } %>

but I don't think its possible. There is a way to create method in codebehind which returns appropriate string and call it, but thats not an option.

Answer 1

Its not possible to use # eval in if statement,

You have some options to solve that:

• You can put the condition of the if in a previous line then check on this variable in the if

example: in code behind:

protected bool isDisabled;

in aspx:

<%# isDisabled=(bool)Eval("IsDisabled")  %>
<% if(isDisabled) %>

• Other way is to call a code behind method which return bool and check on it in the if.

Answer 2

You can use placeholders to hold the two versions of your markup and then use the Visible property to show the relevant one. Something like this... Note the use of ! before the call to IsDisabled in the second Visible property.

<asp:PlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolder1" runat="server" Visible='<%# IsDisabled((bool) Eval("IsDisabled")) %>'>
            <span>Disabled</span>
</asp:PlaceHolder>
<asp:PlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolder2" runat="server" Visible='<%#  !IsDisabled((bool) Eval("IsDisabled")) %>'>
            <span>Active</span>
</asp:PlaceHolder>

The code behind IsDisabled method looks like this...

public bool IsDisabled (bool isDisabled) { return isDisabled; }