I do ...

I want to know why you want this ?

I ask because in a repeater  or a datalist  you have an edit  item template, so you
can do all your updating from there.

Why then would you want a repeater,which is really  meant for display purposes,
to include a combo  that can be altered and the data updated  ?
(and i take it you would then move on to do a textbox and every other sort of
control)

I know it would be useful, but why ? is it absolutely essential ?

I can see how it would be useful to avoid the edit item template and simply
display an updatable grid (without having to post back on the edit item button),
then hit a save button and save everything you've changed. A bit like you can
with a Windows Form.

But even if you did get this far you would probably have a save button on every
row anyway, && making a save button for the whole grid would mean zooming
through the repeater controls  and saving as you go I suppose.

Dan, Like I said, I did get some way to it, but if you've done it then

(a) I'd love to see the code
or
(b) just give me a run down, roughly of how you went about it.
&&
(c) what the final functionality you have obtained actually is.