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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-23T19:32:33+00:00

I have read through this which helped me narrow down my validation problems to

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I have read through this which helped me narrow down my validation problems to the InitialValue property of the RequiredFieldValidator.

My drop down list is a list of objects which are populated by the code behind like this;

brands.Insert(0, Brand.Empty)

cbBrand.DataValueField = "ID";
cbBrand.DataTextField = "Name";
cbBrand.DataSource = new BindingList<Brand>(brands);
cbBrand.DataBind();

where Brand.Empty is a null object type.

Where I’m coming unstuck is getting the IntialValue to accept a null value. For instance, InitialValue="" fails to recognise the empty object in the list.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a fix for this?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Wow. I thought I had searched previous answers on this site very thoroughly before posting this question, but I had missed this!!

    The answer is to change your <asp:DropDownList> to have the property AppendDataBoundItems=true, Then add an <asp:ListItem Text="" Value="" /> between the dropDownList tags and BAM! you can insert a value to the list that does not require the null object inserted in the code behind (which should be removed so that you don’t end up with 2 blanks at the start of your list).

    The benefit here is that the list in my code-behind is bound to an object type <Brand>, but adding the empty string at the client works fine for client-side validation.

    Hope this helps anyone else struggling with this problem!

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