ASP.NET GridView RowIndex As CommandArgument

MSDN says that:

The ButtonField class automatically populates the CommandArgument property with the appropriate index value. For other command buttons, you must manually set the CommandArgument property of the command button. For example, you can set the CommandArgument to <%# Container.DataItemIndex %> when the GridView control has no paging enabled.

So you shouldn't need to set it manually. A row command with GridViewCommandEventArgs would then make it accessible; e.g.

protected void Whatever_RowCommand( object sender, GridViewCommandEventArgs e )
{
    int rowIndex = Convert.ToInt32( e.CommandArgument );
    ...
}

Here is Microsoft Suggestion for this http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb907626.aspx#Y800

On the gridview add a command button and convert it into a template, then give it a commandname in this case "AddToCart" and also add CommandArgument "<%# ((GridViewRow) Container).RowIndex %>"

<asp:TemplateField>
  <ItemTemplate>
    <asp:Button ID="AddButton" runat="server" 
      CommandName="AddToCart" 
      CommandArgument="<%# ((GridViewRow) Container).RowIndex %>"
      Text="Add to Cart" />
  </ItemTemplate> 
</asp:TemplateField>

Then for create on the RowCommand event of the gridview identify when the "AddToCart" command is triggered, and do whatever you want from there

protected void GridView1_RowCommand(object sender, GridViewCommandEventArgs e)
{
  if (e.CommandName == "AddToCart")
  {
    // Retrieve the row index stored in the 
    // CommandArgument property.
    int index = Convert.ToInt32(e.CommandArgument);

    // Retrieve the row that contains the button 
    // from the Rows collection.
    GridViewRow row = GridView1.Rows[index];

    // Add code here to add the item to the shopping cart.
  }
}

**One mistake I was making is that I wanted to add the actions on my template button instead of doing it directly on the RowCommand Event.

I think this will work.

<gridview>
<Columns>

            <asp:ButtonField  ButtonType="Button" CommandName="Edit" Text="Edit" Visible="True" CommandArgument="<%# Container.DataItemIndex %>" />
        </Columns>
</gridview>

void GridView1_RowCommand(object sender, GridViewCommandEventArgs e)
{
    Button b = (Button)e.CommandSource;
    b.CommandArgument = ((GridViewRow)sender).RowIndex.ToString();
}

I typically bind this data using the RowDatabound event with the GridView:

protected void FormatGridView(object sender, System.Web.UI.WebControls.GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
   if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.DataRow) 
   {
      ((Button)e.Row.Cells(0).FindControl("btnSpecial")).CommandArgument = e.Row.RowIndex.ToString();
   }
}

<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="" ItemStyle-Width="20%" HeaderStyle-HorizontalAlign="Center">
                    <ItemTemplate>
                        <asp:LinkButton runat="server" ID="lnkAdd" Text="Add" CommandName="Add" CommandArgument='<%# Eval("EmpID"))%>' />
                    </ItemTemplate>
                </asp:TemplateField>

This is the traditional way and latest version of asp.net framework having strongly typed data and you don't need to use as string like "EMPID"

<asp:LinkButton ID="LnkBtn" runat="server" Text="Text" RowIndex='<%# Container.DisplayIndex %>' CommandArgument='<%# Eval("??") %>' OnClick="LnkBtn_Click" />

inside your event handler :

Protected Sub LnkBtn_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
  dim rowIndex as integer = sender.Attributes("RowIndex")
  'Here you can use also the command argument for any other value.
End Sub

with paging you need to do some calculation

int index = Convert.ToInt32(e.CommandArgument) % GridView1.PageSize;