Check if String / Record exists in DataTable

Question

I have a String and I need to check if any column \"item_manuf_id\" in DataTable dtPs.Rows equals to certain value

I can loop over all Rows and compare

Answer 1

You can loop over each row of the DataTable and check the value.

I'm a big fan of using a foreach loop when using IEnumerables. Makes it very simple and clean to look at or process each row

DataTable dtPs = // ... initialize your DataTable
foreach (DataRow dr in dtPs.Rows)
{
    if (dr["item_manuf_id"].ToString() == "some value")
    {
        // do your deed
    }
}

Alternatively you can use a PrimaryKey for your DataTable. This helps in various ways, but you often need to define one before you can use it.

An example of using one if at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/z24kefs8(v=vs.80).aspx

DataTable workTable = new DataTable("Customers");

// set constraints on the primary key
DataColumn workCol = workTable.Columns.Add("CustID", typeof(Int32));
workCol.AllowDBNull = false;
workCol.Unique = true;

workTable.Columns.Add("CustLName", typeof(String));
workTable.Columns.Add("CustFName", typeof(String));
workTable.Columns.Add("Purchases", typeof(Double));

// set primary key
workTable.PrimaryKey = new DataColumn[] { workTable.Columns["CustID"] };

Once you have a primary key defined and data populated, you can use the Find(...) method to get the rows that match your primary key.

Take a look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/y06xa2h1(v=vs.80).aspx

DataRow drFound = dtPs.Rows.Find("some value");
if (drFound["item_manuf_id"].ToString() == "some value")
{
    // do your deed
}

Finally, you can use the Select() method to find data within a DataTable also found at at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/y06xa2h1(v=vs.80).aspx.

String sExpression = "item_manuf_id == 'some value'";
DataRow[] drFound;
drFound = dtPs.Select(sExpression);

foreach (DataRow dr in drFound)
{
    // do you deed. Each record here was already found to match your criteria
}