Why does this render as a list of "System.Web.Mvc.SelectListItem"s?

Question

I'm trying to populate a DropDownList with values pulled from a property, and my end result right now is a list of nothing but "System.Web.Mvc.SelectListItem"s. I'm sure there's some minor step I'm omitting here, but for the life of me I can't figure out what it is.

The property GET generating the list:

public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> AllFoo {
    get {
        var foo = from g in Bar
                  orderby g.name
                  select new SelectListItem {
                     Value = g.fooid.ToString(),
                     Text = g.name
                  };

        return foo.AsEnumerable();
    }
}

The controller code:

public ActionResult Edit(string id) {
    // n/a code
    ViewData["fooList"] = new SelectList(g.AllFoo, g.fooid);

    return View(g);
}

The view code:

<%= Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.fooid, ViewData["fooList"] as SelectList) %>

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:17:17Z

33

The problem here is that you shoudn't fill a SelectList with an IEnumerable<SelectListItem>. Use either SelectList or an IEnumerable<SelectListItem>, but not both. For more details, have a look at this question: Asp.Net MVC 2 Dropdown Displaying System.Web.MVC.SelectListItem

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:17

CommunityBot

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answered Jun 1, 2012 at 12:51

Stefan Paul Noack

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Comments

Florian K · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-29 10:47:28Z

2

I ran into the same problem. You should render your List in the view like

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.fooid, new 
    SelectList(ViewData["fooList"],"Text","Value", Model.DefaultValue))

This is based on c# with razor view

edited Jun 29, 2018 at 10:47

Florian K

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answered Aug 6, 2012 at 22:46

Siva Kandaraj

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:25:29Z

-5

EDIT: This question is very similar to one that was already asked:

ASP.NET MVC 2 - Html.DropDownListFor confusion with ViewModel

Otherwise, you might find this article helpful:

http://www.nickriggs.com/posts/rendering-and-binding-drop-down-lists-using-asp-net-mvc-2-editorfor/

It uses EditorFor, but the same can be done for DisplayFor.

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:25

CommunityBot

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answered Jun 9, 2010 at 18:59

John Nelson

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2 Comments

Stefan Paul Noack Over a year ago

this is not very helpful. this question asks for the specific reason why the <option> tags are rendered with nothing but "System.Web.Mvc.SelectListItem" in them instead of having proper text and value. Neither of your links addresses this particular problem.

East of Nowhere Over a year ago

Yeah, neither of those other questions or articles are "very similar" to this one. Not at all in fact.

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