How to hide a TemplateField column in a GridView

Question

How can I hide a TemplateField column in a GridView?

I tried the following:

Answer 1

Am I missing something ?

If you can't set visibility on TemplateField then set it on its content

<asp:TemplateField>
  <ItemTemplate>
    <asp:LinkButton Visible='<%# MyBoolProperty %>' ID="foo" runat="server" ... />
  </ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField> 

or if your content is complex then enclose it into a div and set visibility on the div

<asp:TemplateField>
  <ItemTemplate>
    <div runat="server" visible='<%# MyBoolProperty  %>' >
      <asp:LinkButton ID="attachmentButton" runat="server" ... />
    </div>
  </ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField> 

Answer 2

protected void OnRowCreated(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
         e.Row.Cells[columnIndex].Visible = false;
}

---

If you don't prefer hard-coded index, the only workaround I can suggest is to provide a HeaderText for the GridViewColumn and then find the column using that HeaderText.

protected void UsersGrid_RowCreated(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
    ((DataControlField)UsersGrid.Columns
            .Cast<DataControlField>()
            .Where(fld => fld.HeaderText == "Email")
            .SingleOrDefault()).Visible = false;
}

Answer 3

A slight improvement using column name, IMHO:

    Private Sub GridView1_Init(sender As Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles GridView1.Init
    For Each dcf As DataControlField In GridView1.Columns
        Select Case dcf.HeaderText.ToUpper
            Case "CBSELECT"
                dcf.Visible = Me.CheckBoxVisible
                dcf.HeaderText = "<small>Select</small>"
        End Select
    Next
End Sub

This allows control over multiple column. I initially use a 'technical' column name, matching the control name within. This makes it obvious within the ASCX page that it's a control column. Then swap out the name as desired for presentation. If I spy the odd name in production, I know I skipped something. The "ToUpper" avoids case-issues.

Finally, this runs ONE time on any post instead of capturing the event during row-creation.