DataTable won't DataBind with a DataTable.NewRow()

Question

Is DataRow.NewRow() insufficient as the only row in a DataTable? I would expect this to work, but it doesn't. It's near the end of my Page_Load inside my If(!Postback) block. gridCPCP is GridView

DataTable dt = new DataTable();
dt.Columns.Add("ID", int.MinValue.GetType());
dt.Columns.Add("Code", string.Empty.GetType());
dt.Columns.Add("Date", DateTime.MinValue.GetType());
dt.Columns.Add("Date2", DateTime.MinValue.GetType());
dt.Columns.Add("Filename", string.Empty.GetType());

//code to add rows

if (dt.Rows.Count > 0)
{
    gridCPCP.DataSource = dt;
    gridCPCP.DataBind();
}
else
{
    dt.Rows.Add(dt.NewRow());
    gridCPCP.DataSource = dt;
    gridCPCP.DataBind(); //EXCEPTION
    int TotalColumns = gridCPCP.Rows[0].Cells.Count;
    gridCPCP.Rows[0].Cells.Clear();
    gridCPCP.Rows[0].Cells.Add(new TableCell());
    gridCPCP.Rows[0].Cells[0].ColumnSpan = TotalColumns;
    gridCPCP.Rows[0].Cells[0].Text = "No Record Found";   
}

The exception throws on gridCPCP.DataBind() and only when execution reaches the else block. If there were rows added above via dt.Rows.Add(new object[] { ... } binding works.

System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Length cannot be less than zero. Parameter name: length

Answer 1

Sorry that I'm not answering your exact question but checking the code on the else block I wonder... why don't you use the GridView.EmptyDataTemplate for the case you query returned no data?

Answer 2

Exception is because of the empty row. You should:

1. Make a new .NewRow()
2. Add desired fields
3. Add into the DataTable.

-

myRow = dt.NewRow();
myRow["ID"] = 1001;
myRow["Code"] = "YourCode";

dt.Rows.Add(myRow);
gridCPCP.DataSource = dt;
gridCPCP.DataBind(); 

Answer 3

This doesn't really answer the question either, but my solution would probably be to not bother calling the DataBind() method at all if there are no rows, and put the error message in a asp:Literal outside of the GridView, which gets shown only if there are no rows.