MVC DropDownList SelectedValue not displaying correctly

Question

I tried searching and didn\'t find anything that fixed my problem. I have a DropDownList on a Razor view that will not show the the item that I have marked as Selected in th

Answer 1

Create a view model for each view. Doing it this way you will only include what is needed on the screen. As I don't know where you are using this code, let us assume that you have a Create view to add a new order.

Create a new view model for your Create view:

public class OrderCreateViewModel
{
     // Include other properties if needed, these are just for demo purposes

     // This is the unique identifier of your order status,
     // i.e. foreign key in your order table
     public int OrderStatusId { get; set; }
     // This is a list of all your order statuses populated from your order status table
     public IEnumerable OrderStatuses { get; set; }
}

Order status class:

public class OrderStatus
{
     public int Id { get; set; }
     public string Name { get; set; }
}

In your Create view you would have the following:

@model MyProject.ViewModels.OrderCreateViewModel

@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
     

          

               
Order Status:
               

                    @Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.OrderStatusId,
                         new SelectList(Model.OrderStatuses, "Id", "Name", Model.OrderStatusId),
                         "-- Select --"
                    )
                    @Html.ValidationMessageFor(x => x.OrderStatusId)
               
          
     

     
}

Your Create action methods:

public ActionResult Create()
{
     OrderCreateViewModel viewModel = new OrderCreateViewModel
     {
          // Here you do database call to populate your dropdown
          OrderStatuses = orderStatusService.GetAllOrderStatuses()
     };

     return View(viewModel);
}

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Create(OrderCreateViewModel viewModel)
{
     // Check that viewModel is not null

     if (!ModelState.IsValid)
     {
          viewModel.OrderStatuses = orderStatusService.GetAllOrderStatuses();

          return View(viewModel);
     }

     // Mapping

     // Insert order into database

     // Return the view where you need to be
}

This will persist your selections when you click the submit button and is redirected back to the create view for error handling.

I hope this helps.