How to sort data in GridView in ASP.NET

In this article, i am going to give some overview on how to Sort the data when user click on Gridview Header Cell. While doing this, I developed a good piece of code which I do feel will help most of you in your development activity. 

Some Steps to enable Sorting :-

1. Set AllowSorting="True" Property of GridView to enable sorting.
2. Set SortExpression property of each column.
3. Declare Sorting Event Name by just giving value in OnSorting in GridView.

aspx Page

<asp:GridView ID="gvOrders" Width="25%" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False" AllowSorting="true" OnSorting="gvOrders_Sorting">
                  <Columns>
                      <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Data Items" HeaderStyle-BackColor="Black">
                          <ItemTemplate>
                              <asp:Label ID="lblDataItem" runat="server" Text='<%# Container.DataItemIndex %>'></asp:Label>
                          </ItemTemplate>
                      </asp:TemplateField>
                      <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Price" SortExpression="price">
                          <ItemTemplate>
                              <asp:Label ID="lblPrice" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("price") %>' />
                          </ItemTemplate>
                      </asp:TemplateField>
                      <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Quantity" SortExpression="quantity">
                          <ItemTemplate>
                              <asp:Label ID="lblQuantity" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("quantity") %>' />
                          </ItemTemplate>
                      </asp:TemplateField>
                  </Columns>
 </asp:GridView>

aspx.cs Page

   protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (!IsPostBack)
        {
            gvOrders.DataSource = bindData();
            gvOrders.DataBind();
        }
    }

    DataTable bindData()
    {
        string connectionString = "Server=localhost;Database=master;Trusted_Connection=true";
        SqlConnection myConnection = new SqlConnection(connectionString);
        SqlDataAdapter ad = new SqlDataAdapter("SELECT price, quantity FROM demo", myConnection);
        DataSet ds = new DataSet();
        ad.Fill(ds);
        return ds.Tables[0];
    }

    protected void gvOrders_Sorting(object sender, GridViewSortEventArgs e)
    {
        string sortingDirection = string.Empty;
        if (gridviewDirection == SortDirection.Ascending) // if ascending, make it descending
        {
            gridviewDirection = SortDirection.Descending;
            sortingDirection = "Desc";
        }
        else
        {
            gridviewDirection = SortDirection.Ascending; // if descending, make it ascending
            sortingDirection = "Asc";
        }

        DataView sortedView = new DataView(bindData()); // get gridview data and store it in dataview
        sortedView.Sort = e.SortExpression + " " + sortingDirection; // format(Column_Name [ASC|DESC])
        gvOrders.DataSource = sortedView;
        gvOrders.DataBind(); // bind gridview data after sorting in appropriate format
    }

Now here, I am storing direction in ViewState i.e.(Ascending or Descending). 

    public SortDirection gridviewDirection
    {
        get
        {
           if (ViewState["directionState"] == null)
           {
               ViewState["directionState"] = SortDirection.Ascending; // to set default value ascending
           }
           return (SortDirection)ViewState["directionState"];
        }

        set
        { ViewState["directionState"] = value; }
    }

To show all gridview rows in edit mode http://dotnetcodingcircle.blogspot.in/2014/04/show-all-gridview-rows-in-editmode-on.html

That’s it!!…..Happy Programming...