Html.DropDownList Selected Value Not Working (Using Constructor with IEnumerable<SelectListItem>)

Question

I have an issue where the selected value is not working for the Html.DropDownList helper method. See below:

This is My Controller:

public ActionResult Edit(int id = 0)
{
    NewsEvent item = GetItem(id);
    ViewBag.NewsItemId = new SelectList(ViewBag.NewsItemId.Items, "Id", "Name", item.NewsItemId);

    return View(item);
}

This is my View:

@Html.DropDownList("NewsItemId",ViewBag.NewsItemId as SelectList, string.Empty,
                           new { @class = "form-control" })

However when I try the below in by view it works:

@Html.DropDownList("NewsItemId", string.Empty)

The below also works but since the field name does not match the model, it will not post correctly.

@Html.DropDownList("NewsItemIdDrop",ViewBag.NewsItemId as SelectList, string.Empty,
                           new { @class = "form-control" })

The reason I need to use the first option is so that I can add the class attribute to the control.

Could someone help me understand what I am doing wrong?

Answer 1

You have the same problem here:

DropDownListFor Not Selecting Value

Problem is in your ViewBag property name. Because it is same as your property in Model it will not work. You should just change name of your ViewBag prop to something else, like:

ViewBag.NewsItemList = new SelectList(ViewBag.NewsItemId.Items, "Id", "Name", item.NewsItemId);

and on View

@Html.DropDownList("NewsItemId",ViewBag.NewsItemList as SelectList, string.Empty,
                           new { @class = "form-control" })

Answer 2

I tried lot of stuff but eventually got it working like this

In controller

int valittu_tila = 1;
var tapahtumantilat = new List<SelectListItem>();

tapahtumantilat.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Tapahtumaa kirjataan", Value = "0" });
tapahtumantilat.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Odottaa jonossa", Value = "1"});
tapahtumantilat.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Tapahtumaa käsitellään", Value = "2"});

ViewBag.tilalista = new SelectList(tapahtumantilat, "Value", "Text", valittu_tila);

And then in view I just put (I have the onchange event and class for dropdown too here but you can remove those if you want).

@Html.DropDownList("tuki_tila", ViewBag.tilalista as SelectList, "-- valitse tila --", new { @onchange = "executeticketsearch();", @class = "haku_dropdowns" })

(Sorry about finnish in the text values and variable names, but those shouldn't matter :D)

Answer 3

I did not like the fact that you can use

@Html.DropDownList("NewsItemID") 

and it works. Then you need to add the 'class' attribute and suddenly it breaks. I saw one place working and another not working using the syntax

@Html.DropDownList("NewsItemId",ViewBag.NewsItemId as SelectList, string.Empty,
                       new { @class = "form-control" })

When I researched this, I determined the ViewBag.NewsItemId was actually a null in the view. So a working syntax, with the Model and ViewBag fields having the same name is

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

Answer 4

First of all, how do you populate ViewBag.NewsItemId.Items ? We don't see where the values come from.

In order to make a selected value work, it must be of the same type as the elements of your collections. If item.NewsItemId is of type T, ViewBag.NewsItemId.Items must be of type IEnumerable<T> (or any other collection type implementing it). It does not seem to be the case, because you set NewsItemId as the selected value while your collection is based on NewsItemId.Items which may not be of the same type.

Answer 5

You should change the very name of the field of your DropDownList:

@Html.DropDownList("Some_Name_that_does_not_exist_in_model", ViewBag.NewsItemId as SelectList, string.Empty, new { @class = "form-control" })

Answer 6

change viewbag property name to other then model variable name used on page.

Answer 7

@Html.DropDownList("NewsItemId",ViewBag.NewsItemId as SelectList, string.Empty,
    new { @class = "form-control" })

change to

@Html.DropDownList("NewsItemId", ViewBag.NewsItemIdList as SelectList, string.Empty, 
    new { @class = "form-control" })

ViewBag.NewsItemIdList name changed. also change in controller.

Answer 8

I had the same problem. In the example below The variable ViewData["DATA_ACREDITO_MODELO_INTEGRADO"] has a SelectListItem list with a default selected value but such attribute is not reflected visually.

// data 
        var p_estadoAcreditacion = "NO";
        var estadoAcreditacion = new List<SelectListItem>();
        estadoAcreditacion.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "(SELECCIONE)"    , Value = " "    });
        estadoAcreditacion.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "SI"              , Value = "SI"   });
        estadoAcreditacion.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "NO"              , Value = "NO"   });

        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(p_estadoAcreditacion))
        {
            estadoAcreditacion.First(x => x.Value == p_estadoAcreditacion.Trim()).Selected = true;
        }
         ViewData["DATA_ACREDITO_MODELO_INTEGRADO"] = estadoAcreditacion;

I solved it by making the first argument of DropdownList, different to the id attribute.

// error:
@Html.DropDownList("SELECT__ACREDITO_MODELO_INTEGRADO"
, ViewData["DATA_ACREDITO_MODELO_INTEGRADO"] as List<SelectListItem>
, new
{
id         = "SELECT__ACREDITO_MODELO_INTEGRADO"
...
// solved :
@Html.DropDownList("DROPDOWNLIST_ACREDITO_MODELO_INTEGRADO"
, ViewData["DATA_ACREDITO_MODELO_INTEGRADO"] as List<SelectListItem>
, new
{
id         = "SELECT__ACREDITO_MODELO_INTEGRADO"
...