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You can bind any single-value Web server control property — for example, the Text property of a TextBox or the ImageUrl property of an Image control — to a data value. This includes not only display properties, but behavior properties such as size, width, and font.

NOTE: If you are working with list controls ( Repeater, DataList, DataGrid, CheckBoxList, and RadioButtonList ), you specify data binding for the control as a whole using special data-binding properties. For details, see Data Binding Multiple Record Controls. However, you can bind their single-value properties such as size and font using the procedure in this topic.

You specify single-value data binding by creating a data-binding expression. When the control performs data binding, it resolves the expression and assigns the resulting value to the specified property. You can data bind as many properties on a control as you need.

NOTE: If you are working with HTML server controls ( such as the HtmlInputText or HtmlSelect control ), data-binding procedures are different. For details, see Data Binding HTML Server Controls.

1. Create a data-binding expression and assign it as the value for a property ( attribute ) . The expression’s syntax is:

   <%# expression %>

   The following example shows a data-binding expression. The expression gets the value of the au_lname column from the first record of a data view and assigns it to the Text property of a TextBox Web control.

   <asp:TextBox id="myTextBox" runat="server"
      Text='<%# DataView1 ( 0 ) ( "au_lname" ) %>'>
   </asp:TextBox>

   NOTE: For more information, see Data Binding Expressions for Web Forms Pages and Data Binding Expression Syntax.

2. Add code to the Web Forms page to call the control’s or the page’s DataBind method.

   NOTE: You generally do not want to call the DataBind method on each round trip ( that is, in the page initialization without checking for a post back ), because doing so replaces the values in controls.