Building Web Solutions with ASP.NET and ADO.NET

Data Pagination

Unlike the DataList control, the DataGrid control supports data pagination, that is, the ability to divide the displayed data source rows into pages. In real-world scenarios, the size of a data source easily exceeds the page real estate. So to preserve scalability on the server and to provide a more accessible page to the user, you display only a few rows at a time.

Pagination, however, requires a certain amount of work behind the scenes. The control must know how many items per page you want to display and then set up a pagination toolbar to let the user move between pages. In addition, the control must be able to download and process only the records that belong in the current page. Finally, the control must track and expose ...