How do you bind an Enum to a DropDownList control in ASP.NET?

Question

Let\'s say I have the following simple enum:

enum Response
{
    Yes = 1,
    No = 2,
    Maybe = 3
}

How can I bind this enum to a DropDow

Answer 1

Use the following utility class Enumeration to get an IDictionary (Enum value & name pair) from an Enumeration; you then bind the IDictionary to a bindable Control.

public static class Enumeration
{
    public static IDictionary GetAll() where TEnum: struct
    {
        var enumerationType = typeof (TEnum);

        if (!enumerationType.IsEnum)
            throw new ArgumentException("Enumeration type is expected.");

        var dictionary = new Dictionary();

        foreach (int value in Enum.GetValues(enumerationType))
        {
            var name = Enum.GetName(enumerationType, value);
            dictionary.Add(value, name);
        }

        return dictionary;
    }
}

Example: Using the utility class to bind enumeration data to a control

ddlResponse.DataSource = Enumeration.GetAll();
ddlResponse.DataTextField = "Value";
ddlResponse.DataValueField = "Key";
ddlResponse.DataBind();