Question

Here is a snippet of my code:

else
    {
        SubCategory subCat = new SubCategory
        {
            SubCategoryName = name,
            Active = false,
            CategoryID=Convert.ToInt32(ddlCategory.SelectedValue)
        };
        db.SubCategories.InsertOnSubmit(subCat);
    }

    db.SubmitChanges();

The following line is causing an error:

CategoryID=Convert.ToInt32(ddlCategory.SelectedValue)

I have confirmed that the SelectedValue in my DDL is an int, and that the database is expecting an int, so I don’t understand why asp.net gives me a YSOD saying “Input string was not in a correct format.”

If I assign CategoryID a number manually, it works.

EDIT: The problem was because I was populating the drop down list in my code behind and I didn’t wrap it in a (!IsPostBack). So it was destroying the list, repopulating it and setting the index at 0 each time on post back.

Answer 1

so try this then

else
    {
        int cat = Convert.ToInt32(ddlCategory.SelectedValue);
        SubCategory subCat = new SubCategory
        {
            SubCategoryName = name,
            Active = false,
            CategoryID = cat
        };
        db.SubCategories.InsertOnSubmit(subCat);
    }