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I'm really new to programming and I'm trying to create a website in MVC where there's a list of movies. Rather than having the user scrolling through every movie there is, they can simply click on a drop-down filter and choose a letter.

e.g. the movies are: Armageddon, South Park, Zorro, Zelda.

The dropdown list is dynamic, so you have the option to select movies starting with: A, S or Z.

This part is all working, however, I can't figure out how or why, when the user selects a letter and clicks "filter" the variable isn't populated with the user choice. Also, it obviously doesn't actually filter the results i.e. if user selects "Z", it should only show "Zorro" and "Zelda".

Here is my code for the Controller: 

     public ActionResult Index(string search, string options, int? page)
                {
                    ViewModel viewModel = new ViewModel();
                    var v = db.ItemCategories.Include(m => m.Movies);
        
                    if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(search))
                    {
                        v = v.Where(p => p.Title.Contains(search));
                        ViewBag.Search = search;
                    }
        
                    var movies = v.OrderBy(p => p.Title).Select(p => p.Title).Distinct();
                    //first letter of each movie
                    IEnumerable<string> fL = movies.AsQueryable().Cast<string>().Select(str => str.Substring(0, 1)).Distinct();
        
        
                    //populating the selectList with first letter of each category
                    foreach (string f in fL)
                    {
                        ViewBag.Category = new SelectList(fL);
                    }
    
    //Below is the bit of code I'm having most issues with. The rest is working as it should, 
//however when the user selects a letter from the drop-down and clicks on "filter", the "options" variable = null. 
//I have a feeling it has something to do with the type or something, because it was working up until approximately the time when 
//I wrote the code for the fL variable for it to choose first letter of each movie 
//(when it was selecting whole movie name, the options variable was populating just fine)
        
                    if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(options))
                    {
                        v = v.Where(p => p.Title == options);
                        viewModel.Category = options;
                    }
        
                    v = v.OrderBy(p => p.Title);
                    const int PageItems = 10;
                    int currentPage = (page ?? 1);
                    viewModel.Catego = v.ToPagedList(currentPage, PageItems);
        
                    return View(viewModel);
                }

Here is my View code:

@using (Html.BeginForm("Index", "Movies", FormMethod.Get))
    {
        <label>Filter by category:</label>
        @Html.DropDownList("Category", "All")
        <input type="submit" value="Filter" />
        <input type="hidden" name="Search" id="Search" value="@ViewBag.Search" />
    }

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you

ITN00bs
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1 Answers1

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I think this article will help you In C#, how can I filter a list using a StartsWith() condition of another list?

or simply put change your search query to something like this

v = v.Where(p => p.Title.StartsWith(search));

Because Contains will always bring every record that has that search item in it whether at the end or beginning or middle

Ngutor Tsenongo
  • 138
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  • Great, thank you for the link! :) It's still somehow not populating the variable with user selection. I'm just trying to research it now, but not much luck so far – ITN00bs Jan 18 '22 at 06:37
  • If you are willing to share your code for better help then I will be able to help you. That is if it is not a source code that is highly confidential. just share your github repo if public and i can help. Thank you. – Ngutor Tsenongo Jan 18 '22 at 08:50