How do I group data in an ASP.NET MVC View?

Question

In reporting tools like Crystal Reports, there are ways to take denormalized data and group it by a particular column in the data, creating row headings for each unique item

Answer 1

If your view is strongly typed, you can use the LINQ GroupBy extension method with nested foreach:

<% foreach (var group in Model.GroupBy(item => item.Category)) { %>

   
<%= Html.Encode(group.Key) %>
     


     <% foreach (var item in group) { %>
       
<%= Html.Encode(item.Data) %>
  
     <% } %>

     
   

<% } %>

This will provide output much like your formatted lists in the original question. It assumes your model looks something like:

public class ViewModel
{
    public string Category { get; set; }
    public string Data { get; set; }
}