DropdownListFor default value

Question

Is there a simple way to add a \"--Please select--\" default option to a DropDownListFor in MVC 3?

Answer 1

I like the following method:

@Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.SelectedId, new SelectList(Model.Items, "Id", "Name"), new SelectListItem() { Text = "None", Value = "", Selected = true }.Text, new { @class = "form-control search-select-input btn btn-block btn-outline-secondary dropdown-toggle p-1" })

Where Items is an IEnumerable of type you want to display in the dropdown. And you can change out whatever bootstrap classes you want in the last parameter.

This way allows you to set a default label and specify the value of the label if needed.