Here is my dilemma, I have not been able to manipulate my data to a form fitting to jqgrid standards. This is my first time using the jqgrid and I've spent a lot of time reading up on it. My js code is as follows: jQuery("#list").jqGrid({ url: '/Home/ListContacts/', dataType: "json", contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8", mtype: 'POST', colNames: ['First Name', 'MI', 'Last Name'], colModel: [ { name: 'First Name', index: 'FName', width: 40, align: 'left' }, { name: 'MI', index: 'MInitial', width: 40, align: 'left' }, { name: 'Last Name', index: 'LName', width: 400, align: 'left'}], pager: jQuery('#pager'), rowNum: 10, rowList: [5, 10, 20, 50], sortname: 'Id', sortorder: "desc", repeatitems: false, viewrecords: true, imgpath: '/scripts/themes/basic/images', caption: 'My first grid' }); }); what im getting from the database: [["4","Jenna","Mccarthy"],["56","wer","weoiru"]] Now correct me if I am wrong, but the index: in my colModel refers to the column names in my database right? Could someone point to a reference that is straight forward or just start me off with this I would be most grateful.