Is it possible to retrieve property names from a databound item?

Question

Hi SO,

I have this code-behind that checks each item in a repeater when it is databound to see if the author/date are empty (either no author/date, or the system is set to not display them) so that way I can clear out their respective labels. This is so I dont get something like "Posted By on" when there is not author and/or date specified.

Here is the code:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    repeater.ItemDataBound += new RepeaterItemEventHandler(repeater_ItemDataBound);    
}

void repeater_ItemDataBound(object sender, RepeaterItemEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.Item || e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.AlternatingItem)
    {
        Literal PostedBy = (Literal)e.Item.FindControl("litPostedBy");
        Literal PostedOn = (Literal)e.Item.FindControl("litPostedOn");
        string Author = (string)DataBinder.Eval(e.Item.DataItem, "Author");
        string Date = (string)DataBinder.Eval(e.Item.DataItem, "PubDate");

        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(Author))
        {
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(Date))
            {
                PostedBy.Text = "";
                PostedOn.Text = "";
            }
            else
            {
                PostedBy.Text = "Posted ";
            }

        }
    }
}

I am using a CMS, and I am unsure of what all the properties are in the e.Item.DataItem. Is there some way I can loop through the DataItem and print out the property names/values?

Thanks!

Answer 1

What properties DataItem will have depends on what kind of object it contains. It will contain the object from the data source that is currently being processed when databinding the repeater. The following method takes any object and lists the properties it contains:

private static void PrintAllProperties(object obj)
{
    obj.GetType().
        GetProperties().
        ToList().
        ForEach(p => 
            Console.WriteLine("{0} [{1}]", p.Name, p.PropertyType.ToString()
            ));
}

Example output (for a String instance):

Chars [System.Char]
Length [System.Int32]