Question

Could someone shed some light on this my NameValueCollection returns the Length property instead of Name and Value could some show me what im doing wrong here. I can’t set the DataTextField or DataValueField for the dropdownlist it just gives me length.

    public NameValueCollection GetDisplayForumGroups()
    {
        using (CMSEntities db = new CMSEntities())
        {

            var forums = (from x in db.Forums where x.ParentID == null select new { Name = x.Title, Value = x.ForumID }); 
            NameValueCollection collection = new NameValueCollection();

            foreach (var forum in forums)
            {
                collection.Add(forum.Name, forum.Value.ToString());
            }

            return collection;
        }
    }


    public Dictionary<string, int> GetDisplayForumGroups()
    {
        using (CMSEntities db = new CMSEntities())
        {

            Dictionary<string, int> forums = (from x in db.Forums where x.ParentID == null select x).ToDictionary(x => x.Title, x => x.ForumID); 


            return forums;
        }
    }

Answer 1

You can’t bind directly to a NameValueCollection since it doesn’t provide a suitable enumerator. The standard enumerator enumerates through the keys only.

Then again you shouldn’t be using a NameValueCollection for this in the first place, you should use the generic Dictionary unless you need multiple values per key (and even then there are better alternatives for most cases). There’s even a Linq method for automagically making a dictionary:

Dictionary<string, int> forums = (from x
                                  in db.Forums
                                  where x.ParentID == null
                                  select x)
                                 .ToDictionary(x => x.Title, x => x.ForumID);