Quick Asp.Net 2.0 question

Why isn't this label displaying "Hello World!" ???

<asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" Text='<%# "Hello " + "World!"%>'></asp:Label>

...and why isn't this one displaying the current date?

<asp:Label ID="Label2" runat="server" Text="<%# System.DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString() %>"></asp:Label>

Anybody?

TIA.
Regards,
.seb

Memorise these:

<% is the ASP.NET Page Render Function initial delimiter
<%# is the databinding ASP.NET Page Render Function initial delimiter.
<%= is the Response.Write ASP.NET Page Render Function initial delimiter
<%-- is the Comment ASP.NET Page Render Function initial delimiter

In your case, swap <%# for <%=

Ok, I don't know why but writing this in the Page_Load method, it works...

Page.DataBind();

It would be nice if someone could explain though...

BTW: with <%#

Great tip, thanks...

But still not working...

this:
<asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" Text='<%= "Hello " + "World!"%>'></asp:Label>

generates this:
<span id="Label1"><%= "Hello " + "World!"%></span>

My guess would be that because "Hello World" is a constant expression it is evaluated at page compile time so the call to Page.DataBind isn't necessary.

<% = ... %> is shorthand for Response.Write, but Response.Write doesn't return a value, so there's nothing to be assigned to the Label's Text property.
<%# ... %> is a databinding expression which is only evaluated during databinding. Therefore it works when calling Page.DataBind() explicitly.
In your case I'd recommend setting the Label's Text in code, not in markup. I'm not sure about the overhead of Page.DataBind()

Sven Groot wrote:

My guess would be that because "Hello World" is a constant expression it is evaluated at page compile time so the call to Page.DataBind isn't necessary.

The <%=Foo %> statement didn't work because it's shorthand for <% Response.Write( Foo ) %>, obviously you can't put that in a property setter.

sgomez wrote:



Great tip, thanks...

But still not working...

this:
<asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" Text='<%= "Hello " + "World!"%>'></asp:Label>

generates this:
<span id="Label1"><%= "Hello " + "World!"%></span>

Text property expects a string, and if the tag is not <%# %>, it will consider that a literal string; <%= Hello + World %>  in this case. If you want evaluation on the front page, you'd need <%# %>, but that will require you to raise DataBind event.

One nice thing about <%# %> is you can put them anywhere... such as

<asp:Repeater ... DataSource="<%# SomeObject.SomeCollection %>" ...>

So you can actually assign data to controls without doing it in code behind. I prefer this method because it lets me see where I'm getting the data from.

Dupe

I thought you were not allowed to use any <% %> inside a server side tag? You can use them anywhere else just not there. Since it is a server control, you your code behind to populate it.

-c