CODEWITHSUNDEEP
asp.net-mvcvb.netdrop-down-menu
jvanderh
jvanderh

Reputation: 2955

Add empty value to a DropDownList in ASP.net MVC

I'm building a data entry interface and have successfully bound the columns that have reference tables for their data using DropDownList so the user selects from the pre-configured values.

My problem now is that I don't want the first value to be selected by default, I need to force the user to select a value from the list to avoid errors where they didn't pick that field and by default a value was assigned.

Is there a more elegant way of doing this than to add code to include an empty value at the top of the list after I get it from the database and before i pass it to the SelectList constructor in my controller class?

Upvotes: 50

Views: 36457

Answers (2)

qulzam
qulzam

Reputation: 325

You can also use this way:

dropdownlist.DataTextField = ds.Tables[0].Columns[0].Caption;
dropdownlist.DataValueField = ds.Tables[0].Columns[1].Caption;
dropdownlist.DataSource = ds;
dropdownlist.DataBind();


dropdownlist.Items.Insert(0, new ListItem("Select ...", string.Empty));

Upvotes: -9

Ropstah
Ropstah

Reputation: 17794

The Html helper function takes a 'first empty value' parameter as the third argument.

<%=Html.DropDownList("name",dataSource,"-please select item-")%>

Upvotes: 99

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