Question

I’m trying to use the Html.DropDownList extension method but can’t figure out how to use it with an enumeration.

Let’s say I have an enumeration like this:

public enum ItemTypes {     Movie = 1,     Game = 2,     Book = 3 } 

How do I go about creating a dropdown with these values using the Html.DropDownList extension method?

Or is my best bet to simply create a for loop and create the Html elements manually?

Answer 1

For MVC v5.1 use Html.EnumDropDownListFor

@Html.EnumDropDownListFor(     x => x.YourEnumField,     'Select My Type',      new { @class = 'form-control' }) 

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For MVC v5 use EnumHelper

@Html.DropDownList('MyType',     EnumHelper.GetSelectList(typeof(MyType)) ,     'Select My Type',     new { @class = 'form-control' }) 

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For MVC 5 and lower

I rolled Rune’s answer into an extension method:

namespace MyApp.Common {     public static class MyExtensions{         public static SelectList ToSelectList<TEnum>(this TEnum enumObj)             where TEnum : struct, IComparable, IFormattable, IConvertible         {             var values = from TEnum e in Enum.GetValues(typeof(TEnum))                 select new { Id = e, Name = e.ToString() };             return new SelectList(values, 'Id', 'Name', enumObj);         }     } } 

This allows you to write:

ViewData['taskStatus'] = task.Status.ToSelectList(); 

by using MyApp.Common