Databinding DropDown Control in .Net

Question

I am binding the dropdown with db entity.

ddlCustomer.DataSource = Customer.GetAll();
ddlCustomer.DataTextField = "CustomerName";
ddlCustomer.DataBind();

I want to add "SELECT" as the first itemlist in dropdown and bind then entity to the dropdown. How can i do this?

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 30 '08 at 22:33

4

Add:

ddlCustomer.Items.Insert(0, "SELECT");

After ddlCustomer.DataBind();

The item must be inserted after the data bind because the data bind clears the items.

answered Oct 30 '08 at 22:33

Aleris

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You can also set the 'AppendDataBoundItems' property of the DropDownList to 'True'. "Gets or sets a value that indicates whether list items are cleared before data binding." from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.listcontrol.appenddatabounditems.aspx. – Dhaust Oct 30 '08 at 22:41

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 30 '08 at 22:33

I don't know if there is a one line solution to this, but what i was doing before is, not using DataBind , and first create the ListItem object that will have "Select" as the text, then loop through the collection returned from Customer.GetAll() and create a ListItem object for each item in the collection and add it to the drop down list using "DropDownList.Iems.Add(MyItem)" , i know it doesn't look very brilliant but it does the job , after all this is what DataBind is doing in behind.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 01 '08 at 16:02

I know there is an answer already, but you can also do this:

<asp:DropDownList AppendDataBoundItems="true" ID="ddlCustomer" runat="server">
    <asp:ListItem Value="0" Text="Select"/>
</asp:DropDownList>

That way, you won't have to worry about when you call Databind and when you add the select-item.

Databinding DropDown Control in .Net

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