GridView - set width of column in code behind (AutoGenerateColumns="true")

Question

My GridView :

<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server"
    OnRowDataBound="GridView1_RowDataBound"
    AutoGenerateColumns="true"
    DataKeyNames="Role_id">
</asp:GridView>

In code behind :

protected void GridView1_RowDataBound(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.Header)
    {
       //e.Row.Cells[2].Width = 120;                      // isn't working....
    }
    if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.DataRow)
    {
        e.Row.Cells[2].Width = new Unit(120);             // isn't working....
        TableCell cell = e.Row.Cells[2];
        cell.HorizontalAlign = HorizontalAlign.Right;           //**** does work!
        cell.BackColor = Color.LightGray;                       //**** does work!
        //cell.Width = 120;                               // isn't working....
        //e.Row.Cells[2].Width = new Unit("120px") ;      // isn't working....
        //e.Row.Cells[2].CssClass = "myGV_Cell_Width";    // isn't working....
    }
}

The GridView is populated successfully.
Notice that I can set the alignment and the backcolor of the column, but not its width.
I tried many solutions circulating around but none worked.
It always resizes the column to the longest content.
Can it be done at all...?

Just think, how can individual cells have different widths in a table. Column can have widths, not cells. — A G, Sep 21 '15 at 18:37
Rows can't have different column widths. All this should be set with a style sheet. — wolfeh, Sep 21 '15 at 19:06
Yes. I should practice my English. In the meanwhile I'm looking for a way to set the column's width from code behind. (I'll change the title, and thanks for the remark). — gadi, Sep 21 '15 at 19:08
@wolfeh - I tried with style sheet (see my last line in the above code). In the css I have only : width: 150px; But that didn't help either. Somewhere I'm doing something wrong and I can't figure what it is... — gadi, Sep 21 '15 at 19:12

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 22 '15 at 12:13

I was able to do it with the RowCreated event but I had to set the width of the grid and also set the grid to a table-layout:fixed

<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server"
    style="table-layout:fixed;" Width="1000px"
    OnRowCreated = "GridView1_RowCreated"
    OnRowDataBound="GridView1_RowDataBound"
    AutoGenerateColumns="true"
    DataKeyNames="Role_id">
</asp:GridView>

protected void GridView1_RowCreated(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{

 e.Row.Cells[0].Width = New Unit("220px");

}

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 21 '15 at 19:21

1

asp:GridView renders to HTML tables so you just need to set the column width using CSS

th, td {
    width: 120px;
}

answered Sep 21 '15 at 19:21

Adam Milecki

1,738
10
15

I have myStyleSheet.css where I put my styles. Adding the style you mentioned did not help (though it did some weird stuff to the pagination numbers. Third column [2] is still resizing to the longest content). – gadi Sep 21 '15 at 19:54
You can use Firefox (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Page_Inspector) or Chrome (https://developer.chrome.com/devtools/docs/dom-and-styles) page inspectors to see what styles apply to your HTML elements. – Adam Milecki Sep 21 '15 at 21:58

GridView - set width of column in code behind (AutoGenerateColumns="true")

2 Answers2