MVC Drop Down list with entity framework

Question

I\'ve created an MVC project using entity framework code first. My model is simply a form that gathers information.

public class Application
{
    public          


        

Answer 1

Its quite simple. Add an IEnumerable property to your model(Here I suggest you make a ViewModel that can have the exact same properties as Application with the below code included as a property). Then you just need to build the list and send it to your view

public IEnumerable States{ get; set; }

I will assume you want to retrieve the State values from the db. Here is how you will do it:

private IEnumerable GetAllStates()
{
    IEnumerable list = from s in db.Applications
                                       select new SelectListItem
                                       {
                                           Selected = false,
                                           Text = s.State,
                                           Value = s.State
                                       };
    return list;
}

Or this...

private IEnumerable GetAllStates()
{
    IEnumerable list = db.Applications.Select(s => new SelectListItem
                                       {
                                           Selected = false,
                                           Text = s.State,
                                           Value = s.State
                                       });

    return list;
}

Then do something like this in your action:

var app = new Application
{
    States = GetAllStates()
};

return View(app);

Then finally, use Razor on the view to display the Dropdown list like this

@Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.State, Model.States, "--Select a State--")

The 1st parameter is the property of the model to update, the 2nd is the list of data, and 3rd is the default message that will be displayed

Hope this helps.