Question gridview - replace the label itemtemplate by a checkboxlist

[elic05]

i have a colum in a gridview - subCategory
the itemtemplate of the subCategory by default has a label:
the gridview is bind to a table in a db by sqlDataSource
the column - subCategory get strings from the DB
and look like this
winter*summer
winter
spring*summer
spring*winter*summer
etc
in the edit itemtemplate i throw away the label and put checkBoxList and bound it to the sqlDataSource that has the list of sub categories (i have another sqlDataSource that get from another table the list of all the sub categories)

when the user press the edit button I want to take the content of the label of this itemTamplate and split it and check the checkboxes accordining to the array i created from the original string

My problem is:
i can get the string and split it and make an array in the event row_editing
but in this event i cant populate the checkboxlist (it is not created yet)
and in the event row_updating i can populate the checkboxlist but i have no data or rather i dont know how to get to the original string (in design time )

please help!