How do you bind an Enum to a DropDownList control in ASP.NET?

Question

Let\'s say I have the following simple enum:

enum Response
{
    Yes = 1,
    No = 2,
    Maybe = 3
}

How can I bind this enum to a DropDow

Answer 1

ASP.NET has since been updated with some more functionality, and you can now use built-in enum to dropdown.

If you want to bind on the Enum itself, use this:

@Html.DropDownList("response", EnumHelper.GetSelectList(typeof(Response)))

If you're binding on an instance of Response, use this:

// Assuming Model.Response is an instance of Response
@Html.EnumDropDownListFor(m => m.Response)

Answer 2

public enum Color
{
    RED,
    GREEN,
    BLUE
}

ddColor.DataSource = Enum.GetNames(typeof(Color));
ddColor.DataBind();

Answer 3

Both asp.net and winforms tutorial with combobox and dropdownlist: How to use Enum with Combobox in C# WinForms and Asp.Net

hope helps

Answer 4

Check out my post on creating a custom helper "ASP.NET MVC - Creating a DropDownList helper for enums": http://blogs.msdn.com/b/stuartleeks/archive/2010/05/21/asp-net-mvc-creating-a-dropdownlist-helper-for-enums.aspx

Answer 5

You can do this a lot shorter

public enum Test
    {
        Test1 = 1,
        Test2 = 2,
        Test3 = 3
    }
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {

            var items = Enum.GetValues(typeof(Test));

            foreach (var item in items)
            {
                //Gives you the names
                Console.WriteLine(item);
            }


            foreach(var item in (Test[])items)
            {
                // Gives you the numbers
                Console.WriteLine((int)item);
            }
        }
    }

Answer 6

Use the following utility class Enumeration to get an IDictionary<int,string> (Enum value & name pair) from an Enumeration; you then bind the IDictionary to a bindable Control.

public static class Enumeration
{
    public static IDictionary<int, string> GetAll<TEnum>() where TEnum: struct
    {
        var enumerationType = typeof (TEnum);

        if (!enumerationType.IsEnum)
            throw new ArgumentException("Enumeration type is expected.");

        var dictionary = new Dictionary<int, string>();

        foreach (int value in Enum.GetValues(enumerationType))
        {
            var name = Enum.GetName(enumerationType, value);
            dictionary.Add(value, name);
        }

        return dictionary;
    }
}

Example: Using the utility class to bind enumeration data to a control

ddlResponse.DataSource = Enumeration.GetAll<Response>();
ddlResponse.DataTextField = "Value";
ddlResponse.DataValueField = "Key";
ddlResponse.DataBind();