Question

I have the following code. It looks to me like there is a way I could combine it into one statement but I am not sure how to do this.

List<SelectListItem> items = new List<SelectListItem>();

var emptyItem = new SelectListItem(){
    Value = "",
    Text  = "00"
};

items.Add(emptyItem);

ViewBag.AccountIdList = new SelectList(items);

Can someone tell me if it’s possible to simplify this.

Thanks,

Answer 1

Yes, you can use the collection and object initializers together to create the item, add it to the list, and wrap the list all in one statement.

ViewBag.AccountIdList = new SelectList(
    new List<SelectListItem>
    {
         new SelectListItem
         {
            Value = "",
            Text = "00"
         }
    });

The indentation style above is how I prefer to type it with all the curlies on their own line, but you could even one-line it if you wanted.

Either way it’s a single statement.

And incidentally, since you are just passing the List<SelectListItem> to a SelectList constructor, which takes an IEnumerable, you could just pass an array of 1 instead of a list for a bit more performance:

ViewBag.AccountIdList = new SelectList(
    new []
    {
         new SelectListItem
         {
            Value = "",
            Text = "00"
         }
    });

Both would work the same in this case, the latter is a bit more efficient, but both are fine and it’s up to you which you prefer. For more info I did a short blog entry comparing different ways to return a single item as an IEnumerable<T> sequence.