Asp.NET DropDownList Resets SelectedIndex after PostBack

Question

After doing a lot of research online I'm still stumped by this problem. I have a page that loads the names and count of categories into a drop down list. I only do this if !(Page.IsPostBack). When AutoPostBack fires the SelectedIndex = 0. I've tried several different things. Here is my code:

PAGE

<form id="AddAssignmentForm" runat="server">
<asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1" EnablePartialRendering="true" runat="server" />

<asp:UpdatePanel ID="CommentUpdate" runat="server">
<ContentTemplate>

Add Comment
<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlCategory" runat="server" Width="206" OnSelectedIndexChanged="ddlCategory_SelectedIndexChanged" AutoPostBack="true" />
<asp:TextBox ID="txtName" runat="server" Width="200" />
<asp:TextBox ID="txtAbbrv" runat="server" Width="200" />
<asp:TextBox ID="txtDescription" runat="server" Width="200" Height="90" TextMode="MultiLine" />

</ContentTemplate>
</asp:UpdatePanel>
</form>

Here is the back end code.

private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    if (!Page.IsPostBack)
    {
        GetCategories();
    }
}

public void GetCategories()
{
    String strSql = @"SELECT Name, Total
                        FROM MyTable";

    if (con.State == ConnectionState.Closed)
        con.Open();

    OleDbCommand cmdsql = new OleDbCommand(strSql, con);
    OleDbDataReader cmdReader = cmdsql.ExecuteReader();

    if (cmdReader.HasRows)
    {
        while (cmdReader.Read())
        {
            ddlCategory.Items.Add(new ListItem(cmdReader["Category_Name"].ToString(), cmdReader["Total"].ToString()));

        }
        ddlCategory.SelectedIndex = -1;
    }


    cmdReader.Close();
    con.Close();
}

public void FillForm(int index)
{
    ListItem item = ddlCategory.Items[index];
    txtName.Text = item.Text + " " + (Convert.ToInt32(item.Value) + 1).ToString();
    txtAbbrv.Text = item.Text.Substring(0, 1) + (Convert.ToInt32(item.Value) + 1).ToString();
}

public void ddlCategory_SelectedIndexChanged(Object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    //When I break here SelectedIndex always = 1.
    FillForm(ddlCategory.SelectedIndex);
}

I just want to be able to populate the form based on the selected index, but I can't seem to get the correct answer. Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Add AppendDataBoundItems="true" for dropdown list

Answer 2

I discovered the problem. The values being populated from my SQL statement contained values that repeated. For some reason this was causing the entire thing to malfunction in weird ways which made it so that every time I selected a ListItem the whole list would reset. By making sure no values repeated, the code started working perfectly. Thanks for everyone's help.