Question

@Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.field, Model.fieldList, "Select")

I have the code above to get the values of a drop down list from a database. Because the database does not have the select value, I am add it to the list. However, I want to set the selected value to a certain value(variable). How can I do this?

Say I want the selected value to be “WI” and “WI” is in the list. How do i do this? Or how do I specify the @value property?

Answer 1

The DropDownListFor function will first look if there is a selected value in the provided select list. If there are no selected values in the selected list items, it will look at the value of the field that the drop down list is for and attempt to match that to the value of each select list item until it finds the correct one. If any select list item does not have value, it will compare it to the text instead.

Once you have the full list generated, loop through it and find the value you want selected, then set the selected property to true and it should choose that one.