Can't work out why I can't format this text

Question

Now, I could be being a bit thick and be doing this the wrong way, but in short, I have a dataset where I run a query to retrieve what a customer has ordered. Specifically, I've picked one with multiple items in for testing purposes.

I'll spare you all the code but the specific bit I'm having an issue with is:

<script runat="server">
            Do While reader.HasRows
                    Do While reader.Read

                 </script>                              
                            <tr>
                                <td valign="top" width="100"><script runat="server">Response.Write(reader("SKUN"))</script><br /></td>
                                <td valign="top" width="200"><script runat="server">Response.Write(reader("DESCR"))</script></td>
                                <td valign="top" width="50"><script runat="server">Response.Write(reader("QORD"))</script></td>
                                <td valign="top" width="50"><script runat="server">Response.Write(reader("PRIC"))</script></td>
                            </tr>  
                            <script runat="server">
                            Loop
                            reader.NextResult()
                        Loop
</script>

Ignore the inline code side of things, I'm working on another developers project and keeping in time with the way they work so it's easier for them to go back to.

However, this prints out exactly what I'm after, but it doesn't format it into rows in the table itself, it just prints one long line of text at the top of the page.

Am I missing something here or just purely doing it the wrong way? because I can't work out why it doesn't loop through the results to print out.

Answer 1

Try this:

 Do While reader.Read
        Dim tNewRow As New HtmlTableRow
        Dim cellSKU, cellDESCR, cellQORD, cellPRIC As New HtmlTableCell                
        orderNoLbl.Text = reader("NUMB")                
        cellSKU.InnerText = reader("SKUN")
        cellDESCR.InnerText = reader("DESCR")
        cellQORD.InnerText = reader("QORD")
        cellPRIC.InnerText = reader("PRIC")                    
        tNewRow.Cells.Add(cellSKU)                    
        tNewRow.Cells.Add(cellDESCR)                    
        tNewRow.Cells.Add(cellQORD)                    
        tNewRow.Cells.Add(cellPRIC)               
        skusTable.Rows.Add(tNewRow)                
 Loop

Answer 2

Response.Write() writes directly into the response stream. However, the HTML code in the ASPX page is first processed, buffered and only then written to the response stream. This results in your data being sent before any other part of the page is sent.

You should not use Response.Write(). Instead, you need to get your data into the same HTML which is processed by the ASP.NET rendering engine. Use the following syntax to achieve this:

<script runat="server">
        Do While reader.HasRows
                Do While reader.Read
             </script>
                        <tr>
                            <td valign="top" width="100"><% =reader("SKUN") %><br /></td>
                            <td valign="top" width="200"><% =reader("DESCR") %></td>
                            <td valign="top" width="50"><% =reader("QORD") %></td>
                            <td valign="top" width="50"><% =reader("PRIC") %></td>
                        </tr>
                          <script runat="server">
                        Loop
                        reader.NextResult()
                    Loop

Edit based on comments

I think this is your best option:

<table id="someTable" runat="server">
....
<script runat="server">
        Do While reader.HasRows
                Do While reader.Read
                    Dim tr as new HtmlTableRow
                    tr.Cells.Add(new HtmlTableCell(){ InnerText = reader("SKUN"),Width=100,VAlign="top"})
                    tr.Cells.Add(new HtmlTableCell(){ InnerText = reader("DESCR"),Width=200,VAlign="top"})
                    tr.Cells.Add(new HtmlTableCell(){ InnerText = reader("QORD"),Width=50,VAlign="top"})
                    tr.Cells.Add(new HtmlTableCell(){ InnerText = reader("PRIC"),Width=50,VAlign="top"})

                    someTable.Rows.Add(tr)
             </script>

sorry if it doesn't compile in VB.net right of the bat.. (I only have C# installed)