Question

I have enum for Salutation like

public enum SALUTATION
{
    MR = 1,
    MS = 2,
    MRS = 3,        
}

and in my staff class my Salutation property is like,

public SALUTATION Salutation
{
     get;
     set;
}

here, while editing the staff profile am just binding the datas from the database. For salutation I just tried binding the salutation like

ddlSalutation.SelectedValue = Enum.GetName(typeof(SALUTATION), staff.Salutation);

but it binds the selectedValue as -1 always. how can I bind the exact value in the ddl selected item. can anyone help me here..

in the page load event am just binding the ddl source as

 Hashtable hashSalutation = Utilities.GetEnumList(typeof(SALUTATION));
            ddlSalutation.DataSource = hashSalutation;
            ddlSalutation.DataTextField = "value";
            ddlSalutation.DataValueField = "key";
            ddlSalutation.DataBind();

            ddlSalutation.Items.Insert(0, new ListItem("Select Salutation", "-1"));

public Hashtable GetEnumList(Type enumeration)
    {
        string[] names = Enum.GetNames(enumeration);
        Array values = Enum.GetValues(enumeration);
        Hashtable ht = new Hashtable();
        for (int i = 0; i < names.Length; i++)
        {
            ht.Add(Convert.ToInt32(values.GetValue(i)).ToString(), names[i]);
        }
        return ht;
    }

Answer 1

First set this as your datasource

ddSalutation.DataSource = Enum.GetNames(typeof(Salutations));

Then for selected value

ddlSalutation.SelectedValue = staff.Salutation.ToString();