Adding empty value to a DropDownListFor using select2

Question

I want to add an empty value explicitly so that I can use that with jQuery.

$('#empId').select2({
    placeholder: "Select report type",
    allowClear: true,
    width: "265px"
});

How can I make it appear as the first (empty) option of the select?

Code:

 @Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.EmpNameSelected,
    new SelectList(Model.ListOfEmployee, "", "", Model.EmpNameSelected),
     Model.EmpNameSelected, new { id = "empId" })

Possible duplicate of [DropdownListFor default value](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7229626/dropdownlistfor-default-value) — markpsmith, Nov 19 '15 at 14:56

user449689 · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-19T17:07:33.807

0

Suppose you have this model:

public class EmployeeModel
{
    public string EmpNameSelected { get; set; }
    public List<Employee> ListOfEmployee { get; set; }
}

public class Employee
{
    public int EmployeeId { get; set; }
    public string EmployeeName { get; set; }
}

Here is the controller:

    public ActionResult TestEmployeeDropDownList()
    {
        var model = new EmployeeModel
        {
            ListOfEmployee = new List<Employee>
            {
                new Employee { EmployeeId = 1, EmployeeName = "John Doe" },
                new Employee { EmployeeId = 2, EmployeeName = "John Roe" },
                new Employee { EmployeeId = 3, EmployeeName = "Jane Doe" },
            }
        };
        return View(model);
    }

Finally the View:

@{
    var emptyEmployee = new MvcApplication.Models.Employee { EmployeeId = 0, EmployeeName = string.Empty };
    Model.ListOfEmployee.Insert(0, emptyEmployee);
}
@Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.EmpNameSelected, new SelectList(Model.ListOfEmployee, "EmployeeId", "EmployeeName", 0), new { id = "empId" })

edited Nov 19 '15 at 17:07

answered Nov 19 '15 at 16:19

user449689

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is there a no way to do using the razor? i really do not want to mess up adding in my controller and i was thinking that it can be achieved using the overrides – Nick Kahn Nov 19 '15 at 16:43
@AbuHamzah which is the part that you want to replace with razor? – user449689 Nov 19 '15 at 16:45
adding empty values like `new {value = "", text = ""},` on the razor code – Nick Kahn Nov 19 '15 at 16:46
@AbuHamzah I understood what you mean, please see my updated answer – user449689 Nov 19 '15 at 17:08
Thanks let me take a look – Nick Kahn Nov 19 '15 at 17:16

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 19 '15 at 19:08

Hope this will help others...

What I really needed is just one line of code to insert a new empty value

@{Model.ListOfEmployee.Insert(0, "");}  //insert empty value

@Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.EmpNameSelected,
    new SelectList(Model.ListOfEmployee, "", "", Model.EmpNameSelected),
     Model.EmpNameSelected, new { id = "empId" })

Adding empty value to a DropDownListFor using select2

2 Answers2