Question

How would I create a SelectList in my controller and pass it to my view? I need to give the “– Select –” option a value of 0.

I’m responding to the replies that I got from Jeremey of Fluent Validation.

This is what I currently have. My view model:

[Validator(typeof(CreateCategoryViewModelValidator))]
public class CreateCategoryViewModel
{
    public CreateCategoryViewModel()
    {
        IsActive = true;
    }

    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
    public string MetaKeywords { get; set; }
    public string MetaDescription { get; set; }
    public bool IsActive { get; set; }
    public IList<Category> ParentCategories { get; set; }
    public int ParentCategoryId { get; set; }
}

My controller.

public ActionResult Create()
{
    List<Category> parentCategoriesList = categoryService.GetParentCategories();

    CreateCategoryViewModel createCategoryViewModel = new CreateCategoryViewModel
    {
        ParentCategories = parentCategoriesList
    };

    return View(createCategoryViewModel);
}

This is what I have in my view:

@Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.ParentCategoryId, new SelectList(Model.ParentCategories, "Id", "Name", Model.ParentCategoryId), "-- Select --")

How do I create a dropdown list in the controller or view model and pass it to the view? I need the “– Select –” option to have a value of 0.

Answer 1

In your model, change the IList<Category> to SelectList and then instantiate it like this…

List<ParentCategory> parentCategories = categoryService.GetParentCategories();

parentCategories.Insert(0, new ParentCategory(){ Id = "0", Name = "--Select--"});

ParentCategories = new SelectList(parentCategories, "Id", "Name");

Then in your view you can simply call

@Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.ParentCategoryId, Model.ParentCategories);