drop down list value in asp.net

Question

I want to add a value to the drop down list that cannot be selected, like a title. Ex: I have a month drop down list. The very first item should be "select month" this should not be selected. And next is from January to december. How can I do that?

And this is my current code.

string selectmonth = "select * from tblmonth";
SqlCommand scmselect = new SqlCommand(selectmonth, scnbuboy);

SqlDataReader sdrselect = scmselect.ExecuteReader();

drmonth.DataTextField = "month";
drmonth.DataValueField = "monthID";
drmonth.DataSource = sdrselect;

drmonth.DataBind();

Answer 1

<asp:DropDownList ID="DdlMonths" runat="server">
    <asp:ListItem Enabled="true" Text="Select Month" Value="-1"></asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem Text="January" Value="1"></asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem Text="February" Value="2"></asp:ListItem>
    ....
    <asp:ListItem Text="December" Value="12"></asp:ListItem>
</asp:DropDownList>

You can even use a RequiredFieldValidator which ignore this item, it considers it as unselected.

<asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="ReqMonth" runat="server" ControlToValidate="DdlMonths"
    InitialValue="-1">
</asp:RequiredFieldValidator>

Answer 2

You can add an empty value such as:

ddlmonths.Items.Insert(0, new ListItem("Select Month", ""))

And just add a validation to prevent chosing empty option such as asp:RequiredFieldValidator.