How do I change the forecolor of a control in a .NET Grid View?

Question

How do I access a control in a grid view so that I can change it's forecolor? In this code below, FindControl() returns null.

protected void mileageRowBound(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
    (e.Row.Cells[1].FindControl("ddlStateCode") as DropDownList).ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.LightBlue;
}

I have also tried e.Row.FindControl("ddlStateCode") and a few other variations. I'm stumped.

Someone asked for the markup:

<asp:GridView runat="server" OnPreRender="grvStateWiseMileage_OnPreRender" OnRowCommand="grvStateWiseMileage_OnRowCommand"
                                            CssClass="GridViewStyle" BorderWidth="1" Width="100%" ID="grvStateWiseMileage"
                                                AutoGenerateColumns="false" RowStyle-Height="25px" ShowHeader="false" OnRowDataBound="mileageRowBound">
                                            <Columns>
                                                    <asp:TemplateField>
                                                        <ItemStyle CssClass="GridViewRowStyle" Width="5%" />
                                                    <ItemTemplate>
                                                        <asp:Label ID="lblLine" runat="server" onKeyUp="javascript:ValidateDecimal(this)"
                                                            Text='<%# Eval("Line#") %>'></asp:Label>
                                                        <asp:ImageButton runat="server" ID="imgbtnMileageDelete" ImageUrl="Images/delete.png" />
                                                        <asp:HiddenField runat="server" ID="hdnFuelMileageCode" Value='<% #Eval("FuelMileageCode") %>' />
                                                        <asp:HiddenField runat="server" ID="hdnMileageCode" Value='<% # Eval("MileageCode") %>' />
                                                        <asp:HiddenField runat="server" ID="hdnMileagePosted" Value='<% # Eval("MileagePosted") %>' />
                                                    </ItemTemplate>
                                                </asp:TemplateField>
                                                    <asp:TemplateField>
                                                    <ItemStyle CssClass="GridViewRowStyle" Width="10%" />
                                                    <ItemTemplate>
                                                        <asp:DropDownList runat="server" OnLoad="ddlStateCode_OnLoad" ID="ddlStateCode" Style="border: none;
                                                            border-width: 0px; width: 100px">
                                                        </asp:DropDownList>
                                                        <asp:HiddenField runat="server" ID="hdnStateCode" Value='<% # Eval("State")%>' />
                                                    </ItemTemplate>
                                                </asp:TemplateField>
                                                    <asp:TemplateField>
                                                    <ItemStyle CssClass="GridViewRowStyle" Width="10%" />
                                                    <ItemTemplate>
                                                        <BDP:BasicDatePicker ID="bdpMileageDate" runat="server">
                                                        </BDP:BasicDatePicker>
                                                        <asp:HiddenField runat="server" ID="hdnMileageDate" Value='<% # Eval("Date")%>' />
                                                    </ItemTemplate>
                                                </asp:TemplateField>
                                                <asp:TemplateField>
                                                    <ItemStyle CssClass="GridViewRowStyle" Width="10%" />
                                                    <ItemTemplate>
                                                        <asp:TextBox ID="txtMiles" Style="border: none; border-width: 0px; text-align: right"
                                                            Width="90%" runat="server" MaxLength="12" onKeyUp="javascript:ValidateDecimal(this)"
                                                            Text='<%# Eval("Miles") %>' onblur="postBackHiddenField('hdnStateWiseMileage')"
                                                            onkeydown="return postBackHiddenFieldForEnterMiles(event)"></asp:TextBox>
                                                        <cc1:FilteredTextBoxExtender runat="server" FilterMode="ValidChars" FilterType="Custom, Numbers"
                                                            ValidChars="." TargetControlID="txtMiles">
                                                        </cc1:FilteredTextBoxExtender>
                                                    </ItemTemplate>
                                                </asp:TemplateField>
                                                <asp:TemplateField>
                                                    <ItemStyle CssClass="GridViewRowStyle" Width="10%" />
                                                    <ItemTemplate>
                                                        <asp:DropDownList runat="server" ID="ddlLoadStatus" Style="border: none; border-width: 0px;
                                                            width: 100px">
                                                            <asp:ListItem Selected="True" Text="Loaded" Value="1"></asp:ListItem>
                                                            <asp:ListItem Text="Empty" Value="2"></asp:ListItem>
                                                            <asp:ListItem Text="Toll" Value="3"></asp:ListItem>
                                                        </asp:DropDownList>
                                                        <asp:HiddenField runat="server" ID="hdnMileageType" Value='<% # Eval("LoadStatus")%>' />
                                                    </ItemTemplate>
                                                </asp:TemplateField>
                                            </Columns>
                                            <FooterStyle BorderStyle="None" BackColor="White" />
                                        </asp:GridView>

Answer 1

Try to wrap your line of code in

if(e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.DataRow)
 {
      (e.Row.FindControl("ddlStateCode") as DropDownList).ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.LightBlue;
 }

So it will skip header (and footer and a few others).

Answer 2

I guess the better answer to this question is use CSS to change the color of the control text.

Try add the following lines to the ASPX page.

<style type="text/css">
#ddlStateCode
{
  color: #FF0000; /* Change to the hexacode you want */
}
</style>

Hope it helps.