Hi Santhosh,
thank you for your reply.

here's what i did, but i'm getting this error (the name 'e' does not exist in the current context)

        public void InstantiateIn(System.Web.UI.Control container)
            {

                // Create the content for the different row types.
                switch (templateType)
                {
                    case DataControlRowType.Header:
                        // Create the controls to put in the header

                        break;
                    case DataControlRowType.DataRow:
                        // Create the controls to put in a data row
                      
                        string dataKeyValue = DataBinder.Eval(e.Row.DataItem, "au_id").ToString();

                        break;
                    case DataControlRowType.Footer:

                    default:
                        // Insert code to handle unexpected values.
                        break;
                }
            }