How to add an initial “select” value to a DropDownList

Question

If I use a DropDownList:

Answer 1

You could now bind your DropDown in the code behind as usual to the datasource and this data source doesn't need to contain a default value item:

IEnumerable model = ...
DropDownListSubContractors.DataSource = model;
DropDownListSubContractors.DataBind();