asp.net mvc How to add placeholder for html.dropdownlist

Question

I\'m using asp.net mvc 3.

I have this dropdownlist of countries and I want to add a placeholder for it. Here\'s my code:

@Html.DropDownList(\"country         


        

Answer 1

In your collection ViewBag.Countries just insert a dummy record at the from of the collection with the name "-select-". You should be able to force the selected item with an alternate constructor like this:

@Html.DropDownList("country",
     new SelectList(ViewBag.countries as System.Collections.IEnumerable,
     "name", "name", "-select-"), new { @class="chzn-select", @style="width:160px;" } )