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

As others have already said - don't databind to an enum, unless you need to bind to different enums depending on situation. There are several ways to do this, a couple of examples below.

ObjectDataSource

A declarative way of doing it with ObjectDataSource. First, create a BusinessObject class that will return the List to bind the DropDownList to:

public class DropDownData
{
    enum Responses { Yes = 1, No = 2, Maybe = 3 }

    public String Text { get; set; }
    public int Value { get; set; }

    public List<DropDownData> GetList()
    {
        var items = new List<DropDownData>();
        foreach (int value in Enum.GetValues(typeof(Responses)))
        {
            items.Add(new DropDownData
                          {
                              Text = Enum.GetName(typeof (Responses), value),
                              Value = value
                          });
        }
        return items;
    }
}

Then add some HTML markup to the ASPX page to point to this BO class:

<asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" runat="server" 
    DataSourceID="ObjectDataSource1" DataTextField="Text" DataValueField="Value">
</asp:DropDownList>
<asp:ObjectDataSource ID="ObjectDataSource1" runat="server" 
    SelectMethod="GetList" TypeName="DropDownData"></asp:ObjectDataSource>

This option requires no code behind.

Code Behind DataBind

To minimize the HTML in the ASPX page and do bind in Code Behind:

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

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (!IsPostBack)
    {
        foreach (int value in Enum.GetValues(typeof(Responses)))
        {
            DropDownList1.Items.Add(new ListItem(Enum.GetName(typeof(Responses), value), value.ToString()));
        }
    }
}

Anyway, the trick is to let the Enum type methods of GetValues, GetNames etc. to do work for you.

Answer 2

Array itemValues = Enum.GetValues(typeof(TaskStatus));
Array itemNames = Enum.GetNames(typeof(TaskStatus));

for (int i = 0; i <= itemNames.Length; i++)
{
    ListItem item = new ListItem(itemNames.GetValue(i).ToString(),
    itemValues.GetValue(i).ToString());
    ddlStatus.Items.Add(item);
}

Answer 3

That's not quite what you're looking for, but might help:

http://blog.jeffhandley.com/archive/2008/01/27/enum-list-dropdown-control.aspx

Answer 4

The accepted solution doesn't work, but the code below will help others looking for the shortest solution.

 foreach (string value in Enum.GetNames(typeof(Response)))
                    ddlResponse.Items.Add(new ListItem()
                    {
                        Text = value,
                        Value = ((int)Enum.Parse(typeof(Response), value)).ToString()
                    });

Answer 5

After reading all posts I came up with a comprehensive solution to support showing enum description in dropdown list as well as selecting proper value from Model in dropdown when displaying in Edit mode:

enum:

using System.ComponentModel;
public enum CompanyType
{
    [Description("")]
    Null = 1,

    [Description("Supplier")]
    Supplier = 2,

    [Description("Customer")]
    Customer = 3
}

enum extension class:

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web.Mvc;

public static class EnumExtension
{
    public static string ToDescription(this System.Enum value)
    {
        var attributes = (DescriptionAttribute[])value.GetType().GetField(value.ToString()).GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);
        return attributes.Length > 0 ? attributes[0].Description : value.ToString();
    }

    public static IEnumerable<SelectListItem> ToSelectList<T>(this System.Enum enumValue)
    {
        return
            System.Enum.GetValues(enumValue.GetType()).Cast<T>()
                  .Select(
                      x =>
                      new SelectListItem
                          {
                              Text = ((System.Enum)(object) x).ToDescription(),
                              Value = x.ToString(),
                              Selected = (enumValue.Equals(x))
                          });
    }
}

Model class:

public class Company
{
    public string CompanyName { get; set; }
    public CompanyType Type { get; set; }
}

and View:

@Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.Type,
@Model.Type.ToSelectList<CompanyType>())

and if you are using that dropdown without binding to Model, you can use this instead:

@Html.DropDownList("type",                  
Enum.GetValues(typeof(CompanyType)).Cast<CompanyType>()
.Select(x => new SelectListItem {Text = x.ToDescription(), Value = x.ToString()}))

So by doing so you can expect your dropdown displays Description instead of enum values. Also when it comes to Edit, your model will be updated by dropdown selected value after posting page.

Answer 6

Generic Code Using Answer six.

public static void BindControlToEnum(DataBoundControl ControlToBind, Type type)
{
    //ListControl

    if (type == null)
        throw new ArgumentNullException("type");
    else if (ControlToBind==null )
        throw new ArgumentNullException("ControlToBind");
    if (!type.IsEnum)
        throw new ArgumentException("Only enumeration type is expected.");

    Dictionary<int, string> pairs = new Dictionary<int, string>();

    foreach (int i in Enum.GetValues(type))
    {
        pairs.Add(i, Enum.GetName(type, i));
    }
    ControlToBind.DataSource = pairs;
    ListControl lstControl = ControlToBind as ListControl;
    if (lstControl != null)
    {
        lstControl.DataTextField = "Value";
        lstControl.DataValueField = "Key";
    }
    ControlToBind.DataBind();

}