Question

Is there an overload for Html.DropDownList that will show a value from the model as the currently selected item? In my view I insert a model using as using statement

 @using SchoolIn.Models

Then I access the model like this:

        if (Model.Enrollments != null)
        {   
            @Html.DropDownList("searchString", Model.Enrollments.FirstOrDefault().weekDays.Select(s => new SelectListItem { Text = s.ToString(), Value = s.ToString() }))   
        }

Here’s the code from my model:

 public virtual string classDays { get; set; }
 public string[] weekDays = new string[6]          { "Day", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday" };
 public string[] WeekDays
 {
 get { return weekDays; }

When my view loads it presents a dropdown list that I can select from, I select a day and save the selection but when it loads again, I want the previously selected item to be the default selected in the list. How can I do this? I would really appreciate any help, thanks.

Answer 1

It looks like you should be able to set Selected on the appropriate item:

@{
    var Items = Model.Enrollments.FirstOrDefault().weekDays.Select(s => 
        new SelectListItem { Text = s.ToString(), Value = s.ToString() 
            Selected = s.ToString().Equals(PreviouslySelectedValue)
        } 
    );
}
@Html.DropDownList("searchString", Items)   

You could also use DropDownListFor, which should set the selected item to the value of the property.

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => PreviouslySelectedValue, Items)