ASP.NET MVC dropdown with a default empty option

Question

Is there a way to include a default empty option (or with text) if there is no selected value for a dropdownlist?

tvanfosson · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-29 13:31:27Z

132

The below will prepend string.Empty to the SelectList (or IEnumerable) specified in the ViewData["Menu"] item. The select will have id and name MenuID.

<%= Html.DropDownList( "MenuID",
                      (IEnumerable<SelectListItem>)ViewData["Menu"],
                      string.Empty ) %>

Documentation: DropDownList method

edited Oct 29, 2012 at 13:31

answered Feb 3, 2009 at 4:39

tvanfosson

534k102 gold badges703 silver badges801 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

James Newton-King Over a year ago

Thanks. The parameter name of optionLabel for the default option threw me off :)

Mr Grok Over a year ago

Geez... me too I was starting to write my own helper method... rubbish name IMHO - sounds like it would output a <label> tag next to it.

Manuel Allenspach Over a year ago

Be aware that the ViewData-key must be different from the DropDown-Id (in this example "Menu" != "MenuID"). Else the framework overwrites the dropdown, ignoring the third parameter.

gkonuralp Over a year ago

Awesome! Fixed my problem with select2.js too.

devlin carnate · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-24 19:01:42Z

9

For Example:

    Controller :

    private void InitScreenInfoCollate()
    {   
        IEnumerable<MstBrd> listbrd = ibrandRepository.GetItemsByUsercode("");
        ViewBag.Brands = new SelectList(listbrd, "brd_cod", "brd_mei", null);

    }

    View :
    @Html.DropDownList("Brands", null, string.Empty, new { @class = "form-control"})

Result :

edited Jan 24, 2017 at 19:01

devlin carnate

8,6617 gold badges55 silver badges106 bronze badges

answered Feb 1, 2016 at 17:00

tiepnv

3362 silver badges9 bronze badges

Comments

PixelPlex · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-18 15:58:13Z

1

This easy solution worked for my mvc5 project:

in view:

@{
     Model.ModelItemsList.Add(new ModelItem{ });
     SelectList modelItemSelectList = new SelectList(Model.ModelItemsList, "ModelItemID", "ModelItemName");
}

Just add a new item to the List<> you want to display in your view. In my case, I added a empty "ModelItem" to my List<ModelItem> ModelItemList. Since my ModelItemID is a Guid, I had to check for Guid.Empty in my controller method and do some code. Thats all.

edited Jun 18, 2014 at 15:58

answered Jun 16, 2014 at 22:19

PixelPlex

7946 silver badges21 bronze badges

Comments

cjbarth · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-01 21:39:25Z

-8

The solution presented here worked very well for me: http://forums.asp.net/t/1142484.aspx/1

The basic idea is that you set the AppendDataBoundItems property of your DropDownList to true and then put an asp:ListItem in the DropDownList and that will become your default item with all the databound items coming after it.

answered Feb 1, 2013 at 21:39

cjbarth

4,5837 gold badges48 silver badges67 bronze badges

1 Comment

JoeBrockhaus Over a year ago

-1 This is for ASP.NET Web Forms, not MVC.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

ASP.NET MVC dropdown with a default empty option

4 Answers 4

4 Comments

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

4 Answers 4

4 Comments

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related