One of the most common tasks we face as a web developers is displaying data in a grid. In its simplest incarnation, a grid merely displays information about a set of records - the orders placed by a particular customer, perhaps; however, most grids offer features like sorting, paging, and filtering to present the data in a more useful and readable manner.

In ASP.NET WebForms the GridView control offers a quick and easy way to display a set of records in a grid, and offers features like sorting, paging, editing, and deleting with just a little extra work. On page load, the GridView automatically renders as an HTML <table> element, freeing you from having to write any markup and letting you focus instead on retrieving and binding the data to display to the GridView. In an ASP.NET MVC application, however, developers are on the hook for generating the markup rendered by each view. This task can be a bit daunting for developers new to ASP.NET MVC, especially those who have a background in WebForms.

This is the first in a series of articles that explore how to display grids in an ASP.NET MVC application. This installment starts with a walk through of creating the ASP.NET MVC application and data access code used throughout this series. Next, it shows how to display a set of records in a simple grid. Future installments examine how to create richer grids that include sorting, paging, filtering, and client-side enhancements. We'll also look at pre-built grid solutions, like the Grid component in the MvcContrib project and JavaScript-based grids like jqGrid. But first things first - let's create an ASP.NET MVC application and see how to display database records in a web page.

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