10/04 tip: Creating a DataTable from a DataView

Yesterday I wrote that Crystal Reports doesn't recognize a dataview as a datasource.  Developers looking to report against dataviews in Crystal must convert the view to a datatable.  You can do this in VS2005 through the new DataView.ToTable method.  A basic functional equivalent in VS2003 is as follows:

public DataTable ViewToTable(DataView dv)
{
            // Create a new table structure from the table object of the view
            // then loop through the view and import the rows into the new table

            DataTable DtReturn = dv.Table.Clone(); 
            foreach(DataRowView drv in dv)      
                   DtReturn.ImportRow( drv.Row);

            return DtReturn;
}

You can plug that into a generic library and use it to create a datatable from a dataview.

On Wednesday thru Friday, I'll cover practical uses of interfaces in the Common Ground Framework for .NET

Peace out...KG