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Distinguish Edit or Insert Mode

Updated on Oct 7, 2026

In various situations, you may want to detect whether the user is editing a grid item or performing an insert operation. This is useful when you want different appearances for the edit form during insertion and editing, such as with a WebUserControl or FormTemplate custom edit form. For example, you may want to hide the primary key field or change the Update button text to Insert during the initial insert. These online examples demonstrate the second functionality:

C# edit and insert form demo

VB.NET edit and insert form demo

And the code extractions are:

ASP.NET

<asp:Button ID="btnUpdate" Text='<%# ((bool)DataBinder.Eval(Container, "OwnerTableView.IsItemInserted")) ? "Insert" : "Update" %>'
runat="server" CommandName='<%# ((bool)DataBinder.Eval(Container, "OwnerTableView.IsItemInserted")) ? "PerformInsert" : "Update" %>'>

ASP.NET

<asp:Button ID="Button1" Text='<%# IIf( DataBinder.Eval(Container, "OwnerTableView.IsItemInserted"), "Insert", "Update") %>'
runat="server" CommandName='<%# IIf( DataBinder.Eval(Container, "OwnerTableView.IsItemInserted"), "PerformInsert", "Update") %>'>

You can check the type of the editable item in the ItemCreated or ItemDataBound handlers of the grid to verify whether the item is in edit or insert mode. Then you can modify the edit form appearance in ItemCreated or the edit form control values in ItemDataBound. Below are sample code snippets:

C#
private void RadGrid1_ItemCreated(object sender, Telerik.Web.UI.GridItemEventArgs e)
{
    if(e.Item is GridEditableItem && e.Item.IsInEditMode)
    {
        if (e.Item is GridEditFormInsertItem || e.Item is GridDataInsertItem)
        {
            // insert item
        }
        else
        {
            // edit item
        }
    }
}

private void RadGrid1_ItemDataBound(object sender, Telerik.Web.UI.GridItemEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.Item is GridEditFormInsertItem || e.Item is GridDataInsertItem)
    {
        // insert item
    }
    else
    {
        // edit item
    }
}          
VB
Private Sub RadGrid1_ItemCreated(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As Telerik.Web.UI.GridItemEventArgs) Handles RadGrid1.ItemCreated
    If TypeOf e.Item Is GridEditableItem And e.Item.IsInEditMode Then

        If TypeOf e.Item Is GridEditFormInsertItem OrElse TypeOf e.Item Is GridDataInsertItem Then
            ' insert item
        Else
            ' edit item
        End If
    End If
End Sub 'RadGrid1_ItemCreated

Private Sub RadGrid1_ItemDataBound(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As Telerik.Web.UI.GridItemEventArgs) Handles RadGrid1.ItemDataBound
    If TypeOf e.Item Is GridEditableItem And e.Item.IsInEditMode Then

        If TypeOf e.Item Is GridEditFormInsertItem OrElse TypeOf e.Item Is GridDataInsertItem Then
            ' insert item
        Else
            ' edit item
        End If
    End If
End Sub 'RadGrid1_ItemDataBound

For more information about the differences between the ItemCreated and ItemDataBound events, see Differences between ItemCreated and ItemDataBound. You can also learn how to control the edit, insert, and regular modes in the grid from Controlling insert and edit modes.

Distinguish Edit or Insert Mode

See Also