Question

Why is the initial value of my dropdownlist not showing? I’m using:

@Html.DropDownList("DropDownValues", new SelectList(ViewBag.sellectedSubjectsId, "Initial Value")); 

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Try to avoid using Dynamic stuff like ViewBag and ViewData for transferring data between action method and views. Use strongly typed view models.

Assume your view is to Create a new course where user has to select one subject from a list of subjects, create a view model like this

public class CourseVM
{
  public List<SelectListItem> Subjects { set;get;}
  public int SelectedSubject { set;get;}
  public CourseVM()
  {
    Subjects=new List<SelectListItem>();
  }
}

And in your GET action, create an object of your view model and fill the Subjects property.

public ActionResult Create()
{
  var vm=new CourseVM();
  //the below is for demo. replace with database data
  vm.Subjects.Add(new SelectListItem{ Value="1", Text="Maths"});
  vm.Subjects.Add(new SelectListItem{ Value="2", Text="English"});
  return View(vm);
}

Now in your view, which is strongly typed to your view model.

@model CourseVM
@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
 //Other form elements as well
 @Html.DropdownListFor(x=>x.SelectedSubject,
                     new SelectList(Subjects,"Value","Text"),"Select one")
  <input type="submit" />
}