Html.DropDownListFor does not select value

Question

I have an action that retrieves data and sends it to a view. In a view I have two dropdown menus.

First drop down shows salutation (such as "Mr.", "Ms.", etc.) and does not select value I sent for some reason. The other dropdown shows language list and correctly selects value I sent to the view. The relevant code in view is shown below.

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Salutation, ViewBag.salutation as IEnumerable<SelectListItem>)

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Language, ViewBag.languages as IEnumerable<SelectListItem>)

In the controller I have the following code to get the dropdown data.

ViewBag.salutation = new List<SelectListItem>() { 
                                        new SelectListItem() { Text = "", Value = "" },
                                        new SelectListItem() { Text = "Mr.", Value = "Mr." }, 
                                        new SelectListItem() { Text = "Ms.", Value = "Ms." }, 
                                        new SelectListItem() { Text = "Mrs.", Value = "Mrs." } 
                                    };

and

var languages = (from l in db.Languages.ToList()
                         select new SelectListItem()
                         {
                             Text = l.Language,
                             Value = l.LanguageId.ToString()
                         }).ToList();
        languages.Insert(0, new SelectListItem() { Text = "", Value = "" });
        ViewBag.languages = languages;

The only difference I could think of is that the languages dropdown has an integer as value, whereas salutation dropdown has text as value. Is this why the salutation dropdown doesn't work? I know I could go through each salutation List<SelectListItem> item and set Selected property based on the value I retrieved from database. But I was hoping there would be a cleaner way to do this.

Any ideas?

Thanks

UPDATE

I decided to do what I did for another project.

IList<SelectListItem> _salutation = new List<SelectListItem>() 
        { 
            new SelectListItem() { Value = "", Text = "" },
            new SelectListItem() { Value = "Mr.", Text = "Mr." }, 
            new SelectListItem() { Value = "Ms.", Text = "Ms." }, 
            new SelectListItem() { Value = "Mrs.", Text = "Mrs." } 
        };
        // I could put the following in the declaration above, but for testing purposes it's in foreach loop.
        foreach (var item in _salutation)
        {
            // compare to what's retrieved from database
            item.Selected = item.Value == _viewData.Salutation;
        }
        ViewBag.salutation = _salutation;

After foreach loop I output .Value, .Selected property of each item in _salutation and I get all the correct values with one item being selected. Inside the view I did the following.

        @foreach (var item in ViewBag.salutation as IEnumerable<SelectListItem>)
        {
            <b>@item.Value : @item.Text : @item.Selected</b><br />
        }

All the correct Text/Values come up but none are Selected! This happens if I output the values after I execute @Html.DropDownListFor(). If I output the ViewBag.salutation before the html helper the correct value is selected.

SOLUTION

I found the following article useful: DropDownListFor with ASP.NET MVC.

Instead of using ViewBag I added the following to the ViewModel. (Showing the part for salutations drop down.)

public class TheViewModel
{
    private IList<string> _salutations = new List<string>() { "", "Mr.", "Ms.", "Mrs." };

    public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> SalutationItems
    {
        get
        {
            var salutations = _salutations.Select(s => new SelectListItem { Value = s, Text= s });
            return salutations;
        }
    }
    // The rest of the ViewModel
}

And in the View I have the following.

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Salutation, Model.SalutationItems)

what you are trying to do I didn't understood your logic, you are putting dropdown from model and also passing from viewBag, you can just set the model property of salutation and pass model to view, then there will be no need to put in ViewBag — Ehsan Sajjad
– Ehsan Sajjad, Commented Aug 22, 2013 at 15:31
ViewBag contains data for dropdown list (which could be many items, as it is the case for languages) and in my model I have one value for each dropdown - these come from database - and this is what I want to select. One dropdown works the other doesn't. — sakura-bloom
– sakura-bloom, Commented Aug 22, 2013 at 15:33
what you are trying to do, its unclear to me, why you are using both model and viewbag, why not one thing? — Ehsan Sajjad
– Ehsan Sajjad, Commented Aug 22, 2013 at 15:36
What exactly is unclear? The model represents selected fields from the database and there are quite a few of them. I used the ViewBag to populate the two dropdown menus so as not to pollute my model. — sakura-bloom
– sakura-bloom, Commented Aug 22, 2013 at 15:38
you can use a viewmodel in that case and add property of salutation as list<selectlistitem> and you can get the value from database and set it in viewmodel and then pass that viewmodel to your view,,isn't that the proper way? — Ehsan Sajjad
– Ehsan Sajjad, Commented Aug 22, 2013 at 15:46

asymptoticFault · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-22 15:50:44Z

4

Instead of just supplying the list to the DropDownListFor helper you could provide it a SelectList. The SelectList constructor takes the list and allows you to explicitly set the selected value as well as an overload that lets you specify the Text and Value fields.

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Salutation,
                      new SelectList(ViewBag.salutation as IEnumerable<SelectListItem>,
                                     "Value", "Text", Model.Salutation))

edited Aug 22, 2013 at 15:50

answered Aug 22, 2013 at 15:30

asymptoticFault

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9 Comments

Ehsan Sajjad Over a year ago

whats the difference in 1st and third parameter?

sakura-bloom Over a year ago

This populates the dropdown with "System.Web.Mvc.SelectListItem" for each entry. But I think this is very close.

asymptoticFault Over a year ago

Try using the other overload to specify the Text and Value fields of the list.

sakura-bloom Over a year ago

It populates the fields but does not select the value.

asymptoticFault Over a year ago

I think I encountered something like this once before. The model value was equal to one of the items but it would not select it for some reason. I believe I ended up creating a helper or convenience method that created the SelectList and explicitly set the Selected property of the item in the list whose value was equal to the value I passed to the helper or convenience method.

|

Jaimin · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-22 17:58:07Z

0

Try this,

@Html.DropDownListFor(m =>m.DDCountryModel,IEnumerable<SelectListItem>)ViewBag.salutation)

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Language, IEnumerable<SelectListItem>)ViewBag.languages)

Your Model should be like this,

 public class Model
{
public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> DDCountryModel{ get; set; }
public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> Language{ get; set; }
}

answered Aug 22, 2013 at 17:58

Jaimin

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