How can I add option groups in ASP.NET drop down list?

Question

I have a requirement of grouping the drop down list options in ASP.NET drop down server control. Do you have any idea to how to approach the issue? I am new to ASP.NET.

Answer 1

This is old but since I used the accepted answer recently I wanted to share my experience with it. While it does provide the correct markup, it caused problems for me, specifically whenever I tried to submit a form with any dropdownlist I would get the dreaded "Invalid postback or callback argument" error. After googling like a maniac, I came across this article which then links to this blog post. The code I ended up using was this:

    public class DropDownListAdapter : System.Web.UI.WebControls.Adapters.WebControlAdapter {
    protected override void RenderContents(HtmlTextWriter writer) {

        var dropDownList = (DropDownList)Control;
        var items = dropDownList.Items;

        var groups = (from p in items.OfType()
                      group p by p.Attributes["Group"] into g
                      select new { Label = g.Key, Items = g.ToList() });

        foreach (var group in groups)
        {
            if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(group.Label))
            {
                writer.WriteBeginTag("optgroup");
                writer.WriteAttribute("label", group.Label);
                writer.Write(">");
            }

            var count = group.Items.Count();
            if (count > 0)
            {
                var flag = false;
                for (var i = 0; i < count; i++)
                {
                    var item = group.Items[i];

                    writer.WriteBeginTag("option");
                    if (item.Selected)
                    {
                        if (flag)
                        {
                            throw new HttpException("Multiple selected items not allowed");
                        }
                        flag = true;

                        writer.WriteAttribute("selected", "selected");
                    }

                    if (!item.Enabled)
                    {
                        writer.WriteAttribute("disabled", "true");
                    }

                    writer.WriteAttribute("value", item.Value, true);

                    if (Page != null)
                    {
                        Page.ClientScript.RegisterForEventValidation(dropDownList.UniqueID, item.Value);
                    }
                    writer.Write('>');
                    HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(item.Text, writer);
                    writer.WriteEndTag("option");
                    writer.WriteLine();
                }
            }
            if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(group.Label))
            {
                writer.WriteEndTag("optgroup");
            }
        }
    }
}

The listitems used here are created in the design page rather than the code-behind page like so:

This produced the same markup as the accepted answer here but this didn't give me the postback error. I hope this saves someone some grief.