check if a repeater is null

Question

How do you check in ascx if a repeater block is null/shows no values? I am displaying its content with Container.DataItem if it helps. Other actions will essentially depend on this condition. Thanks

Answer 1

Depending on what you actually want to achieve you could check the following:

• repeater.DataSource == null
  when there is no data source, then there won't be any items
• repeater.Items
  Filter the items for ItemType ListItemType.Item or ListItemType.AlternatingItem to see whether there are any items bound.
• You can also access the repeater itself from the ItemTemplate (navigate Container.Parent and cast then) or from codebehind like here Access Parent Repeaters DataItem Property