C# - Dumping a list to a dropdownlist

Question

List<String> nameList = new List<String>();
DropDownList ddl = new DropDownList();

List is populated here, then sorted:

nameList.Sort();

Now I need to drop it into the dropdownlist, which is where I'm having issues (using foreach):

foreach (string name in nameList){
    ddl.Items.Add(new ListItem(nameList[name].ToString()));
}

No workie - any suggestions? It's giving me compile errors:

Error - The best overloaded method match for 'System.Collections.Generic.List<string>.this[int]' has some invalid arguments 

Error - Argument '1': cannot convert from 'string' to 'int'

Answer 1

Why not just bind the DDL directly to the List like

DropDownList ddl = new DropDownList();
ddl.DataSource = nameList;
ddl.DataBind();

Answer 2

Replace this:

 ddl.Items.Add(new ListItem(nameList[name].ToString()));

with this:

 ddl.Items.Add(new ListItem(name));

Done like dinner.

Answer 3

ddl.DataSource = nameList; 
ddl.DataBind(); 

Doesn't work if it's a SharePoint list - Error: Data source is an invalid type. It must be either an IListSource, IEnumerable, or IDataSource. Decided to chime in, in case any SharePoint developers thought this was for an SPList instead of List<string>, as was written above.

There is a way to bind to an SPList, but you'd use an SPListItemCollection, or go one better and use an SPDataSource. For the SharePoint developers, see this blog by Chris O' Brien.