Question

Migrating from textboxe to dropdownlist – Need to send value from a hard-coded dropdownlist to controller

The code below is used in the controller

var list = new SelectList(new[]
                                      {
                                          new{ID="1",Name="20012"},
                                          new{ID="2",Name="20011"},
                                          new{ID="3",Name="20010"},
                                          new {ID="4",Name="2009"},
                                          new{ID="5",Name="2008"},
                                          new{ID="6",Name="2007"},
                                            new{ID="7",Name="2006"},
                                              new{ID="8",Name="2005"},
                                                new{ID="9",Name="2004"},
                                                  new{ID="3",Name="2003"},
                                                   new{ID="3",Name="2002"},
                                                    new{ID="3",Name="2001"},
                                                    new{ID="3",Name="2000"},

                                      },
                              "ID", "Name", 1);
        ViewData["list"] = listYear;

The code below is used in the view

@using (Html.BeginForm()){   
     <p>
  Title: @Html.TextBox("SearchString")  
        @Html.DropDownList("list",ViewData["list"] as SelectList) 
     Genre: @Html.DropDownList("Towns", "All")  
     <input type="submit" value="Filter" /></p>
    }

Below is the code which was used for the textbox

  if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(year))
        {
            car = Cars.Where(s => s.Year.Contains(year));
        }

Answer 1

Looks like you are trying to select a value from a selectlist and send that value to the controller. First off, I’d suggest you use a ViewModel instead of magic strings. You should modify your View to accept the new ViewModel and then post the model to your action. It’s easy, cleaner and more maintainable.

Here is what your model would look like

public class VehicleYearsViewModel {

    public SelectList VehicleYears { get; set; }
    public int SelectedYear { get; set; }

    public VehicleYearsViewModel() {
        VehicleYears = new SelectList(new[]
                                  {
                                      new{ID="1",Name="2012"},
                                      new{ID="2",Name="2011"},
                                      new{ID="3",Name="2010"},
                                      new{ID="4",Name="2009"},
                                      new{ID="5",Name="2008"},
                                      new{ID="6",Name="2007"},
                                      new{ID="7",Name="2006"},
                                      new{ID="8",Name="2005"},
                                      new{ID="9",Name="2004"},
                                      new{ID="3",Name="2003"},
                                      new{ID="3",Name="2002"},
                                      new{ID="3",Name="2001"},
                                      new{ID="3",Name="2000"}
                                  }
    }
}

Your View then would look like so:

@YourAppName.Models.VehicleYearsViewModel

@using (Html.BeginForm()){
    @Html.ValidationSummary(true)
    @Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.SelectedYear, Model.VehicleYears, "ID", "Name", 1))
    <input type="submit" value="OK" />
}

Your controller action would accept the model and can make use of the selected value as an int datatype.
I’m just guessing since your controller action isn’t posted but this is pretty much what it would look like:

public class HomeController : Controller {

    public ActionResult Index() {
        var model = new VehicleYearsViewModel();
        return View(model);
    }

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(VehicleYearsViewModel model) {
        if(ModelState.IsValid) {
            // you can get selected year like so
            int selectedYear = model.SelectedYear;
            // ... your code here to do whatever with selectedYear
        }
        return View(model);
     }   
}

Hope this helps