Use Custom object type in DropDownListFor - MVC 4

Question

@Html.DropDownListFor requires a List of SelectListItem. Is there a way to use a custom object here instead of select list item and tell the drop down list which properties of the custom object to use for the value and text? Or is there an easy way to translate my customer object to a SelectListItem?

I have a Status object: public string StatusCode {get;set;} public string StatusCodeDescription {get;set;}

So right now I would have to write a for loop to translate a Status to a SelectListItem for all my Lists... This just seems like there needs to be an easier way...

Darin Dimitrov Darin Dimitrov · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-29T21:55:10

@Html.DropDownListFor requires a List of SelectListItem. Is there a way to use a custom object here instead of select list item and tell the drop down list which properties of the custom object to use for the value and text?

You could use the SelectList constructor taking 3 arguments: an IEnumerable<T> and 2 strings representing the names of the value and text properties of the custom type:

@Html.DropDownListFor(
    x => x.SelectedStatusCode, 
    new SelectList(
        Model.Satuses, 
        "StatusCode",  
        "StatusCodeDescription"
    )
)

In this example we assume that Model.Satuses is a property of type IEnumerable<StatusViewModel> where StatusViewModel contains at least 2 properties to bind the respectively the value and the text of the dropdown:

public class StatusViewModel
{
    public string StatusCode { get; set; } 
    public string StatusCodeDescription { get; set; }
    ...
}

Use Custom object type in DropDownListFor - MVC 4

1 Answers