Letting the visitor sort the grid

Sorting by column heading is a small feature that makes a long list far more usable.

Turn it on

<asp:GridView id="productsGrid" runat="server"
    DataSourceID="productsSource"
    AllowSorting="true" AutoGenerateColumns="false">
    <Columns>
        <asp:BoundField DataField="Name"
            HeaderText="Product" SortExpression="Name" />
    </Columns>
</asp:GridView>

What has to be true

• Each sortable column needs a sort expression that names a real column in the query.
• The data source must be able to sort, which the data source control handles for you.

Paging is the natural companion, in paging through many rows.