validate a dropdownlist in asp.net mvc

Question

//in controller
ViewBag.Categories = categoryRepository.GetAllCategories().ToList();

//in view
 @Html.DropDownList(\"Cat\", new SelectList(ViewBag.Categories,\"ID\"         


        

Answer 1

Example from MVC 4 for dropdownlist validation on Submit using Dataannotation and ViewBag (less line of code)

Models:

namespace Project.Models
{
    public class EmployeeReferral : Person
    {

        public int EmployeeReferralId { get; set; }


        //Company District
        //List                
        [Required(ErrorMessage = "Required.")]
        [Display(Name = "Employee District:")]
        public int? DistrictId { get; set; }

    public virtual District District { get; set; }       
}


namespace Project.Models
{
    public class District
    {
        public int? DistrictId { get; set; }

        [Display(Name = "Employee District:")]
        public string DistrictName { get; set; }
    }
}

EmployeeReferral Controller:

namespace Project.Controllers
{
    public class EmployeeReferralController : Controller
    {
        private ProjDbContext db = new ProjDbContext();

        //
        // GET: /EmployeeReferral/

        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            return View();
        }

 public ActionResult Create()
        {
            ViewBag.Districts = db.Districts;            
            return View();
        }

View:

                    

                        @Html.LabelFor(model => model.DistrictId, "District")
                    
                
                
                    

                        @*@Html.DropDownList("DistrictId", "----Select ---")*@
                        @Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.DistrictId, new SelectList(ViewBag.Districts, "DistrictId", "DistrictName"), "--- Select ---")
                        @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.DistrictId)                                                
                    
                

Why can't we use ViewBag for populating dropdownlists that can be validated with Annotations. It is less lines of code.