Performance difference between gridview data binding vs looping in ASP.NET

Question

How much difference will there be if I bind data to a gridview in comparison to a loop through the data and build out the Html?

I am currently using an html table in the ItemTemplate of a gridview and have <%#Eval("ID")%> in that table to bind the data from iQueryable

What if i loop through the IQueryable and build out html from the code behind instead. How much is the performance difference if someone has done that comparison or has good knowledge of which should be the way to go ?

Thanks.

I am using Asp.net /C#

Answer 1

Generally speaking the performance benefit of avoiding complex controls and binding is not measurable on an individual page level, and thus inconsequential. The developer time saved in using existing controls and simpler api's, like data binding, greatly outweigh the small performance hit.

In our main application, we use complex controls and data binding throughout the ASP.NET page. The data binding portion of the full page life cycle is under 2% of the time to process the whole page. It's much less than the I/O for the page and particularly the DB calls.

One exception is in reports. The reporting engine we use supports directly setting data in a loop or using data binding. Data binding is much easier. However, with some reports hitting 200+ pages with over 300,000 bound data items, the performance hit of data binding was noticeable in this case. In our reports, we don't use data binding.