Question

I’ve figured out how to add a record into a library. The only thing I am trying to figure out is how (or maybe where) do I save a user’s selection from a lookup list?

In the below code snippet, I am saving a new list item. It saves without error, but the fields “AwardType” and “AwardReason” are lookup fields and, although I do not get an error, nothing gets saved to them. How do I save to a lookup field selection from a user?

using (SPSite site = new SPSite(SPContext.Current.Web.Url))
{
    using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())
    {
        using (FileStream fs = (new FileInfo(fileUpload.PostedFile.FileName)).OpenRead())
        {
            SPList list = web.Lists["Awards"];
            Hashtable ht = new Hashtable();
            ht.Add("wfRecipientName", txtRecipientName.Text);
            ht.Add("Office", txtOrganization.Value);
            ht.Add("AwardType", ddAwardTypes.SelectedValue);
            ht.Add("AwardReason", ddAwardReasons.SelectedValue);

            SPFile destfile = list.RootFolder.Files.Add(fileUpload.FileName, fs, ht, false);
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

Storing a lookup’s value is done with SPFieldLookupValue(ID, Value).

You need to store the object returned by this method in a list item field, not a property via a hash table. In my example below, Awards list is document library and AwardType is a field of type lookup.

SPList list = web.Lists["Awards"];
Hashtable ht = new Hashtable();
ht.Add("Office", "Chicago"); // standard property
SPFile file = list.RootFolder.Files.Add(System.IO.Path.GetFileName(FileUpload1.PostedFile.FileName), fs, ht, true);
SPListItem item = file.Item; // get the item for the just-added file.

// assign the lookup column using SPFieldLookupValue
item["AwardType"] = new SPFieldLookupValue(
    Int32.Parse(DropDownList1.SelectedValue),
            DropDownList1.Text);
item.Update();  // to save the lookup column.