Create DropdownList in ASP.NET MVC
Learn how to generate the dropdownlist HTML control using the HtmlHelper in a razor view.
The HtmlHelper class includes two extension methods to generate the control in a razor view: DropDownListFor[] and DropDownList[].
We will use the following Student model class and Gender enum.
Html.DropDownListFor[]
The Html.DropDownListFor extension method is a strongly typed extension method generates element for the property specified using a lambda expression.
Visit docs.microsoft.com to know all the overloads of DropDownListFor method.
The following example creates dropdown list for the above StudentGender property.
In the above example, the first parameter in DropDownListFor[] method is a lambda expression that specifies the model property to be bind with the select element. We have specified the StudentGender property. The second parameter specifies the items to show into a dropdown list using SelectList object. The third parameter is optional, which will be the first item of dropdownlist. So now, it generates control with two list items - Male & Female, as shown below.
Html.DropDownList[]
The Html.DropDownList[] method generates a element with specified name, list items and html attributes.
Visit docs.microsoft.com to know all the overloads of DropDownList[] method.
In the above example, the first parameter is a property name for which we want to display list items. The second parameter is a list of values to be included in the dropdown list. We have used Enum methods to get the Gender values. The third parameter is a label, which will be the first list item, and the fourth parameter is for HTML attributes like CSS to be applied on the dropdownlist.