Question

I have a table that needs 27 drop down menus in 27 cells to accept user input. Currently I am declaring all 27 of them like this:

DropDownList DropList1 = new DropDownList();
DropList1.ID = "TrendList1";
DropList1.AutoPostBack = true;
DropList1.SelectedIndexChanged += new EventHandler(this.Selection_Change);
DropList1.DataSource = CreateDataSource();
DropList1.DataTextField = "ColorTextField";
DropList1.DataValueField = "ColorValueField";
DropList1.DataBind();

DropDownList DropList2 = new DropDownList();
DropList2.ID = "TrendList2";
DropList2.AutoPostBack = true;
DropList2.SelectedIndexChanged += new EventHandler(this.Selection_Change);
DropList2.DataSource = CreateDataSource();
DropList2.DataTextField = "ColorTextField";
DropList2.DataValueField = "ColorValueField";
DropList2.DataBind();

etc...

However I know there has to be a better way than the brute force code I have written. Unfortunately I am new to web programming and I haven’t been able to figure out a better way to do this.

Any advice is appreciated.

Regards.

Answer 1

var data = CreateDataSource();

for(x = 1; x < 28; x++)
{
    DropDownList dl = new DropDownList();
    dl.ID = "TrendList" + x.ToString();
    dl.AutoPostBack = true;
    dl.SelectedIndexChanged += new EventHandler(this.Selection_Change);
    dl.DataSource = data;
    dl.DataTextField = "ColorTextField";
    dl.DataValueField = "ColorValueField";
    dl.DataBind();
    // add it to the cell here too
}