How to write a simple Html.DropDownListFor()?

In ASP.NET MVC 2, I'd like to write a very simple dropdown list which gives static options. For example I'd like to provide choices between "Red", "Blue", and "Green".

7 Answers

See this MSDN article and an example usage here on Stack Overflow.

Let's say that you have the following Linq/POCO class:

public class Color { public int ColorId { get; set; } public string Name { get; set; } } 

And let's say that you have the following model:

public class PageModel { public int MyColorId { get; set; } } 

And, finally, let's say that you have the following list of colors. They could come from a Linq query, from a static list, etc.:

public static IEnumerable<Color> Colors = new List<Color> { new Color { ColorId = 1, Name = "Red" }, new Color { ColorId = 2, Name = "Blue" } }; 

In your view, you can create a drop down list like so:

<%= Html.DropDownListFor(n => n.MyColorId, new SelectList(Colors, "ColorId", "Name")) %> 

<%: Html.DropDownListFor( model => model.Color, new SelectList( new List<Object>{ new { value = 0 , text = "Red" }, new { value = 1 , text = "Blue" }, new { value = 2 , text = "Green"} }, "value", "text", Model.Color ) ) %> 

or you can write no classes, put something like this directly to the view.

Avoid of lot of fat fingering by starting with a Dictionary in the Model

namespace EzPL8.Models { public class MyEggs { public Dictionary<int, string> Egg { get; set; } public MyEggs() { Egg = new Dictionary<int, string>() { { 0, "No Preference"}, { 1, "I hate eggs"}, { 2, "Over Easy"}, { 3, "Sunny Side Up"}, { 4, "Scrambled"}, { 5, "Hard Boiled"}, { 6, "Eggs Benedict"} }; } } 

In the View convert it to a list for display

@Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.Egg.Keys, new SelectList( Model.Egg, "Key", "Value")) 

Hi here is how i did it in one Project :

 @Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.MyOption, new List<SelectListItem> { new SelectListItem { Value = "0" , Text = "Option A" }, new SelectListItem { Value = "1" , Text = "Option B" }, new SelectListItem { Value = "2" , Text = "Option C" } }, new { @class="myselect"}) 

I hope it helps Somebody. Thanks

Or if it's from a database context you can use

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.MyOption, db.MyOptions.Select(x => new SelectListItem { Text = x.Name, Value = x.Id.ToString() })) 

With "Please select one Item"

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.ContentManagement_Send_Section, new List<SelectListItem> { new SelectListItem { Value = "0", Text = "Plese Select one Item" } } .Concat(db.NameOfPaperSections.Select(x => new SelectListItem { Text = x.NameOfPaperSection, Value = x.PaperSectionID.ToString() })), new { @class = "myselect" }) 

Derived from the codes: Master Programmer && Joel Wahlund ;
King Reference : JaredPar ;

Thanks Master Programmer && Joel Wahlund && JaredPar ;

Good luck friends.

@using (Html.BeginForm()) { <p>Do you like pizza? @Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.likesPizza, new[] { new SelectListItem() {Text = "Yes", Value = bool.TrueString}, new SelectListItem() {Text = "No", Value = bool.FalseString} }, "Choose an option") </p> <input type = "submit" value = "Submit my answer" /> } 

I think this answer is similar to Berat's, in that you put all the code for your DropDownList directly in the view. But I think this is an efficient way of creating a y/n (boolean) drop down list, so I wanted to share it.

Some notes for beginners:

• Don't worry about what 'x' is called - it is created here, for the first time, and doesn't link to anything else anywhere else in the MVC app, so you can call it what you want - 'x', 'model', 'm' etc.
• The placeholder that users will see in the dropdown list is "Choose an option", so you can change this if you want.
• There's a bit of text preceding the drop down which says "Do you like pizza?"
• This should be complete text for a form, including a submit button, I think

Hope this helps someone,