Question

I got a model defined as IEnumerable<MyViewModel> which I tried to use to create a select list (Html.SelectListFor). But I couldn’t figure out how to do it. Which made me look at the plain Html.SelectList method.

Since it wants a IEnumerable<SelectListITem> and I don’t want to add view specific logic in my controller or logic in my view I ended up to create the following extension method:

public static class ExtensionMethods
{
    public static IEnumerable<SelectListItem> ToSelectList<T>(this IEnumerable<T> items, Func<T, string> valueSelector, Func<T, string> textSelector)
    {
        return items.Select(item => new SelectListItem
                                        {
                                            Text = textSelector(item),
                                            Value = valueSelector(item)
                                        }).ToList();
    }

}

Which I use as:

@Html.DropDownList("trainid", Model.ToSelectList(item => item.Id, item => item.Name));

This doesn’t seem to be the optimal solution. How should I have done?

Answer 1

Guess that the answer is that I’m already using the best solution.