The way that a data source control retrieves data is determined by the control itself. The ObjectDataSource control reads data by calling the method specified in the SelectMethod property. The following example shows an ObjectDataSource control that returns data by using the GetAllEmployees method of the EmployeeLogic class.
<%@ Register TagPrefix="aspSample" Namespace="Samples.AspNet.VB" Assembly="Samples.AspNet.VB" %>
<%@ Page language="vb" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html >
<head>
<title>ObjectDataSource - Visual Basic Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id="Form1" method="post" runat="server">
<asp:gridview
id="GridView1"
runat="server"
datasourceid="ObjectDataSource1" />
<asp:objectdatasource
id="ObjectDataSource1"
runat="server"
selectmethod="GetAllEmployees"
typename="Samples.AspNet.VB.EmployeeLogic" />
</form>
</body>
</html>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="aspSample" Namespace="Samples.AspNet.CS" Assembly="Samples.AspNet.CS" %>
<%@ Page language="c#" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html >
<head>
<title>ObjectDataSource - C# Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id="Form1" method="post" runat="server">
<asp:gridview
id="GridView1"
runat="server"
datasourceid="ObjectDataSource1" />
<asp:objectdatasource
id="ObjectDataSource1"
runat="server"
selectmethod="GetAllEmployees"
typename="Samples.AspNet.CS.EmployeeLogic" />
</form>
</body>
</html>
For more information, see ObjectDataSource Web Server Control Overview.
The SqlDataSource and AccessDataSource controls select data by running a SQL query that is specified in the SelectCommand property. The following example shows a SqlDataSource control that returns data from the Employees table of the Northwind sample database:
<%@ Page language="VB" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html >
<head runat="server">
<title>ASP.NET Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<asp:SqlDataSource
id="SqlDataSource1"
runat="server"
DataSourceMode="DataReader"
ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:MyNorthwind%>"
SelectCommand="SELECT LastName FROM Employees">
</asp:SqlDataSource>
<asp:ListBox
id="ListBox1"
runat="server"
DataTextField="LastName"
DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1">
</asp:ListBox>
</form>
</body>
</html>
<%@ Page language="C#" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html >
<head runat="server">
<title>ASP.NET Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<asp:SqlDataSource
id="SqlDataSource1"
runat="server"
DataSourceMode="DataReader"
ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:MyNorthwind%>"
SelectCommand="SELECT LastName FROM Employees">
</asp:SqlDataSource>
<asp:ListBox
id="ListBox1"
runat="server"
DataTextField="LastName"
DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1">
</asp:ListBox>
</form>
</body>
</html>
For more information, see Selecting Data Using the SqlDataSource Control.
When you use the LinqDataSource control, if you do not set its Select property, the control returns data for all the properties in the data class. You can specify a subset of properties or calculate new values by setting the Select property. The following example shows a LinqDataSource control that returns three properties from a data source that contains additional properties.
<asp:LinqDataSource
ContextTypeName="ExampleDataContext"
TableName="Products"
Select="new(Name, Category, Price)"
ID="LinqDataSource1"
runat="server">
</asp:LinqDataSource>
<asp:GridView
DataSourceID="LinqDataSource1"
ID="GridView1"
runat="server">
</asp:GridView>
<asp:LinqDataSource
ContextTypeName="ExampleDataContext"
TableName="Products"
Select="new(Name, Category, Price)"
ID="LinqDataSource1"
runat="server">
</asp:LinqDataSource>
<asp:GridView
DataSourceID="LinqDataSource1"
ID="GridView1"
runat="server">
</asp:GridView>
The XmlDataSource does not let you select specific elements from the source XML data. However, you can specify a filter by using the XPath property. For more information, see Filtering Data Using the XmlDataSource Control.