Hiding the expand/collapse images when no records

You may want to hide the expand/collapse images when there are no records under parent grid item and the HierarchyLoadMode = ServerBind or HierarchyLoadMode = Client options for loading grid hierarchy are chosen. To accomplish this task you need to:

1. Wire the PreRender event of Telerik RadGrid

2. Traverse all grid items and get reference to those which are of type GridNestedViewItem

3. Verify whether their NestedTableViews collection is empty

4. If so, locate the expand/collapse image inside the ExpandCollapse column of the respective GridTableView

5. Hide the image along with the corresponding GridNestedViewItem

Below is the code of a simple demo with two level hierarchy:

ASP.NET

<telerik:RadGrid RenderMode="Lightweight" ID="RadGrid1" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1" runat="server" Width="95%"
  AutoGenerateColumns="False" PageSize="3" AllowPaging="True" OnPreRender="RadGrid1_PreRender">
  <MasterTableView DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1" DataKeyNames="CustomerID" Width="100%"
    HierarchyLoadMode="ServerBind">
    <PagerStyle Mode="NumericPages" />
    <DetailTables>
      <telerik:GridTableView DataKeyNames="OrderID" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource2" Width="100%"
        runat="server">
        <ParentTableRelation>
          <telerik:GridRelationFields DetailKeyField="CustomerID" MasterKeyField="CustomerID" />
        </ParentTableRelation>
        <Columns>
          <telerik:GridBoundColumn SortExpression="OrderID" HeaderText="OrderID" HeaderButtonType="TextButton"
            DataField="OrderID" UniqueName="OrderID">
          </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
          <telerik:GridBoundColumn SortExpression="OrderDate" HeaderText="Date Ordered" HeaderButtonType="TextButton"
            DataField="OrderDate" UniqueName="OrderDate">
          </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
          <telerik:GridBoundColumn SortExpression="EmployeeID" HeaderText="EmployeeID" HeaderButtonType="TextButton"
            DataField="EmployeeID" UniqueName="EmployeeID">
          </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
        </Columns>
        <PagerStyle Mode="NumericPages" />
      </telerik:GridTableView>
    </DetailTables>
    <Columns>
      <telerik:GridBoundColumn SortExpression="CustomerID" HeaderText="CustomerID" HeaderButtonType="TextButton"
        DataField="CustomerID" UniqueName="CustomerID">
      </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
      <telerik:GridBoundColumn SortExpression="ContactName" HeaderText="Contact Name" HeaderButtonType="TextButton"
        DataField="ContactName" UniqueName="ContactName">
      </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
      <telerik:GridBoundColumn SortExpression="CompanyName" HeaderText="Company" HeaderButtonType="TextButton"
        DataField="CompanyName" UniqueName="CompanyName">
      </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
    </Columns>
  </MasterTableView>
</telerik:RadGrid>
<asp:SqlDataSource ID="SqlDataSource1" ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:NorthwindConnectionString %>"
  ProviderName="System.Data.SqlClient" SelectCommand="SELECT * FROM Customers"
  runat="server"></asp:SqlDataSource>
<asp:SqlDataSource ID="SqlDataSource2" ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:NorthwindConnectionString %>"
  ProviderName="System.Data.SqlClient" SelectCommand="SELECT * FROM Orders Where CustomerID = @CustomerID"
  runat="server">
  <SelectParameters>
     <asp:SessionParameter Name="CustomerID" SessionField="CustomerID" Type="string" />
  </SelectParameters>
</asp:SqlDataSource>

C#

protected void RadGrid1_PreRender(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    HideExpandColumnRecursive(RadGrid1.MasterTableView);
}
public void HideExpandColumnRecursive(GridTableView tableView)
{
    GridItem[] nestedViewItems = tableView.GetItems(GridItemType.NestedView);
    foreach (GridNestedViewItem nestedViewItem in nestedViewItems)
    {
        foreach (GridTableView nestedView in nestedViewItem.NestedTableViews)
        {
            if (nestedView.Items.Count == 0)
            {
                TableCell cell = nestedView.ParentItem["ExpandColumn"];
                cell.Controls[0].Visible = false;
                cell.Text = "&nbsp";
                nestedViewItem.Visible = false;
            }
            if (nestedView.HasDetailTables)
            {
                HideExpandColumnRecursive(nestedView);
            }
        }
    }
}

VB

Protected Sub RadGrid1_PreRender(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    HideExpandColumnRecursive(RadGrid1.MasterTableView)
End Sub
Public Sub HideExpandColumnRecursive(ByVal tableView As GridTableView)
    Dim nestedViewItems As GridItem() = tableView.GetItems(GridItemType.NestedView)
    For Each nestedViewItem As GridNestedViewItem In nestedViewItems
        For Each nestedView As GridTableView In nestedViewItem.NestedTableViews
            If nestedView.Items.Count = 0 Then
                Dim cell As TableCell = nestedView.ParentItem("ExpandColumn")
                cell.Controls(0).Visible = False
                cell.Text = "&nbsp"
                nestedViewItem.Visible = False
            End If
            If nestedView.HasDetailTables Then
                HideExpandColumnRecursive(nestedView)
            End If
        Next
    Next
End Sub

In order to hide the expand/collapse images in multiple nested levels, you will need to perform a recursive loop through each table in depth. How to traverse the grid items in such manner you can learn from this topic.