MVC4 Dropdown menu for Gender

asp.net-mvc-4, drop-down-menu

Solution

say we use an enum for the gender:

namespace DropdownExample.Models
{
    public enum GenderType
    {
     Male=1,
     Female=2
    }
}

and we make a model like this:

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.Web.Mvc;
namespace DropdownExample.Models
{
    public class ActionModel
    {
        public ActionModel()
        {
            ActionsList = new List<SelectListItem>();
        }
        [Display(Name="Gender")]
        public int ActionId { get; set; }
        public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> ActionsList { get; set; }       
    }
}

make a controller like so:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using DropdownExample.Models;
namespace DropdownExample.Controllers
{
    public class ActionController : Controller
    {
        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            ActionModel model = new ActionModel();
            IEnumerable<GenderType> GenderType = Enum.GetValues(typeof(GenderType))
                                                       .Cast<GenderType>();
            model.ActionsList = from action in actionTypes
                                select new SelectListItem
                                {
                                    Text = action.ToString(),
                                    Value = ((int)action).ToString()
                                };
            return View(model);
        }
    }
}

then in your view, you use the DropDownListFor html helper you include the following:

@model DropdownExample.Models.ActionModel
@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Index";
} 
@Html.LabelFor(model=>model.ActionId)
@Html.DropDownListFor(model=>model.ActionId, Model.ActionsList)

the DropDownListFor html helper uses at leats these two parameters:

- the name of the property that will hold the selected value

- the `List<SelectListItem>()` that contains all the options in the dropdownlist.

Problem

Original source