MVC DropdownListFor Enum with int value

Question

Ok, so this is an issue that has bothered me since the first time I started playing with MVC around 3 years ago. Binding to dropdownlists has always been a pain in the arse but there is a neat way to do it for enums by doing this:

 @Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Type, new SelectList(Enum.GetValues(typeof(mediaZone.Common.Models.AssetType)), Model.Type))

Great, but the only problem is that that solution will output something like this:

<select id="Type" name="Type">
    <option>Image</option>
    <option selected="selected">Video</option>
    <option>Website</option>
</select>

What I would like to do is output something like this:

<select id="Type" name="Type">
    <option value="1">Image</option>
    <option value="2" selected="selected">Video</option>
    <option value="3">Website</option>
</select>

We are on version 5 now of MVC, you would think that many many many people have had this issue and don't want to write code to fix it. I really hope someone out there has a one line solution to this niggling issue of mine :)

Cheers, /r3plica

Have you visted http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4656758/mvc3-razor-dropdownlistfor-enums — Satpal, Oct 04 '13 at 15:07
not what I am looking for. I don't want a helper class, I don't even want to write any more code that one line. I know I "could" write a helper class myself, but surely, something this simple should just be a part of MVC.... — r3plica, Oct 04 '13 at 15:42
So... you need to know if there is a 1 line solution to your problem... that is all your question? Then: NO. The line counting thing, back to adolescence time :) — Romias, Oct 07 '13 at 14:26
seems strange that I can create a dropdown list based off my enum in one line, but I can't specify a default value as well..... — r3plica, Oct 08 '13 at 14:55

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 04 '13 at 16:51

Do it in the controller, it is just a foreach for your enum items, returning a collection with 2 values instead of just the name.

Then... in your view you can get a one line of code, far cleaner that the one you have now:

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Type, Model.MySelectList)

Other benefits of doing the foreach, is that you could need internationalization in the names of each Enum item, so you could do the translation during the foreach.

MVC DropdownListFor Enum with int value

1 Answers1