GridView – Show headers on empty data source
ASP.Net 4.0 added the boolean ShowHeaderWhenEmpty property. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.gridview.showheaderwhenempty.aspx <asp:GridView runat=”server” ID=”GridView1″ ShowHeaderWhenEmpty=”true” AutoGenerateColumns=”false”> <Columns> <asp:BoundField HeaderText=”First Name” DataField=”FirstName” /> <asp:BoundField HeaderText=”Last Name” DataField=”LastName” /> </Columns> </asp:GridView> Note: the headers will not appear unless DataBind() is called with something other than null. GridView1.DataSource = New List(Of String) GridView1.DataBind()