What is the correct way to format SPGridView values being displayed? - sharepoint

Question

Problem
As we know, SharePoint saves data in database in plain text. Some fields even have concatenated strings like <id>;#<value> for user fields. Percents are saved as doubles (1.00000000000000 for 100%) and etc.
Ofcourse, I want to display data as they are displayed in lists.
What should I do?
Should I use derived SPBoundField to format values (Which I actually did and it works fine until you want to filter (probably SPBoundField won't format me values because i use ObjectDataSource not list and with reflector I saw if there are SPListItems in datasource, then it formats correctly. Not my case)
alt text http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/2797/ss20090820110331.png
Or must I loop through all the DataTable and format each row accordingly?
What are Your techniques?
Thank you.

Answer 1

Here is how I solved this issue.
<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Campaign Members">
<ItemTemplate>
<%# RemoveCharacters(Eval("CampaignMembers").ToString())%>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>
// Make sure declare using System.Text.RegularExpression;
protected string RemoveCharacters(object String)
{
string s1 = String.ToString();
string newString = Regex.Replace(s1, #"#[\d-];", string.Empty);
newString = Regex.Replace(newString, "#", " ");
return newString.ToString();
}

Answer 2

I normaly use ItemTemplates that inherit from ITemplate. With in the ItemTemplate I use the SPFieldxxxValue classes or some custom formating code. This saves looping through the DataTable and the ItemTemplates can be reused.
The ItemTemplates are attached in Column Binding
E.G
// Normal Data Binding
SPBoundField fld = new SPBoundField();
fld.HeaderText = field.DisplayName;
fld.DataField = field.InternalName;
fld.SortExpression = field.InternalName;
grid.Columns.Add(fld);
// ItemTemplate Binding
TemplateField fld = new TemplateField();
fld.HeaderText = field.DisplayName;
fld.ItemTemplate = new CustomItemTemplateClass(field.InternalName);
fld.SortExpression = field.InternalName;
grid.Columns.Add(fld);
An example of a ItemTemplate
public class CustomItemTemplateClass : ITemplate
{
private string FieldName
{ get; set; }
public CustomItemTemplateClass(string fieldName, string formatString)
{
FieldName = fieldName;
}
#region ITemplate Members
public void InstantiateIn(Control container)
{
Literal lit = new Literal();
lit.DataBinding += new EventHandler(lit_DataBinding);
container.Controls.Add(lit);
}
#endregion
void lit_DataBinding(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Literal lit = (Literal)sender;
SPGridViewRow container = (SPGridViewRow)lit.NamingContainer;
string fieldValue = ((DataRowView)container.DataItem)[FieldName].ToString();
//Prosses Filed value here
SPFieldLookupValue lookupValue = new SPFieldLookupValue(fieldValue);
//Display new value
lit.Text = lookupValue.LookupValue;
}
}

Answer 3

Here are a few options. I don't know the output of all of them (would be a good blog post) but one of them should do what you want:
SPListItem.GetFormattedValue()
SPField.GetFieldValue()
SPField.GetFieldValueAsHtml()
SPField.GetFieldValueAsText()
It may also be handy to know that if you ever want to make use of the raw values then have a look at the SPField*XYZ*Value classes. For example the form <id>;#<value> you mention is represented by the class SPFieldUserValue. You can pass the raw text to its constructor and extract the ID, value, and most usefully User very easily.

Answer 4

I would suggest either to format the values before binding them to the spgridview. Linq and an anonymous type is preffered or to call a code behind function on the field that needs the formatting upon binding.
DataField='<%# FormatUserField(Eval("UserFieldName")) %>'
or...maybe a templated field?

Answer 5

After all, i did have not know any other solution to loop through DataTable rows and format them accordingly.
If your SPGridView's data source is list, try out SPBoundField.