Selecting the Right Tabular Control

Problem
You want to use an ASP.NET control to display some data in a tabular format.

Solution
Use a Repeater, DataList, DataGrid, or GridView control. Always choose the smallest and fastest control that meets your needs, which invariably will be influenced by other criteria as in these examples:

If you need a quick and easy solution
Use a GridView.

If you need a lightweight read-only tabular display
Use a Repeater.

If you need your solution to be small and fast
Use a Repeater (lightest) or DataList (lighter).

If you want to use a template to customize the appearance of the display
Choose a Repeater or DataList.

If you want to select rows or edit the contents of a data table
Choose a DataList, a DataGrid, or a GridView.

If you want built-in support to sort your data by column or paginate its display
Choose a GridView.

If you want to use custom pagination
Choose a DataGrid.

Comparative summary of native tabular control features

Feature	Repeater control	DataList control	DataGrid control	GridView control
Default appearance	None (template-driven)	Table	Table	Table
Automatically generates columns from the data source	No	No	Yes	Yes
Header can be customized	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Data row can be customized	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Supports alternating row customization	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Supports customizable row separator	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Footer can be customized	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Supports pagination	No	No	Yes	Yes
Supports custom paging	No	No	Yes	No
Supports sorting	No	No	Yes	Yes
Supports editing contents	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Supports selecting a single row	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Supports selecting multiple rows	No	No	No	No
Supports arranging data items horizontally or vertically (from left-to-right or top-to-bottom)	No	Yes	No	No
Supports sorting and paging using asynchronous callbacks	No	No	No	Yes

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