BoundField's DataFormatString Attribute Doesn't Work As Expected
Author:	Michael G.     Last Updated:10/19/2006 8:09:04 PM
Category(ies):	ASP.NET/Web Forms , .Net Framework 2.0
Description:	There is a issue where if you add a DataFormatString attribute to a GridView's BoundField tag, or other bound column that supports this attribute, the formatting specified will not be rendered. Learn how to fix that problem.
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There is a issue where if you add a DataFormatString attribute to a GridView's BoundField tag, or other bound column that supports this attribute, the formatting specified will not be rendered. That's because the behavior of the CLR is to apply HTML encoding before any special formatting is specified, overriding any custom formatting, and not allowing the formatting to influence the field's presented data.

To resolve this issue, simply add the HtmlEncode attribute to the BoundField's tag and give it a boolean false value.