Pull one record from the database and bind to an HTML tag

Question

In ASP.NET, what is the definitive way to pull one record from the database and bind it and HTML tag? Brevity and style points count.

Answer 1

For brevity, you'll want to use the SqlDataSource.

<asp:SqlDataSource ID="sql" runat="server" ConnectionString='<%$ ConnectionStrings:MyConnectionString %>'
    SelectCommandType="Text"
    SelectCommand="select MyField FROM MyTable WHERE ID = @id"
    >
    <SelectParameters>
        <asp:ControlParameter ControlID="txtUserName" PropertyName="Text" Name="id" />
    </SelectParameters>
</asp:SqlDataSource>

<asp:BulletedList runat="server" DataTextField="MyField" DataSourceID="sql">
</asp:BulletedList>

Answer 2

It's not clear what you want but, detailsview control is designed for displaying only one record from data source.

DetailsView is a data-bound user interface control that renders a single record at a time from its associated data source, optionally providing paging buttons to navigate between records.