How do I get the selected value of a DropDownList in MVC

Question

How can I get the selected value from the DropDown in MVC? I want to assign it to a variable.

This is my controller action:

public ActionResult Drop()
{
    List<SelectListItem> items = new List<SelectListItem>();
    items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Action", Value = "0" });
    items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Drama", Value = "1" });
    items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Comedy", Value = "2" });
    items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Science Fiction", Value = "3" });
    items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Horror", Value = "4" });
    items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Art", Value = "5"  });
    ViewData["Options"] = items;
}

This is my view:

@Html.DropDownList("Options", ViewData["Options"] as SelectList, "--Select Item--")

Answer 1

View

@using (Html.BeginForm())
{ 
    <h2>Drop</h2>
    @Html.DropDownList("Options", ViewData["Options"] as SelectList, "--Select Item--")

    <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit" />
}

Controller Add a new action

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Drop(FormCollection form)
{
    var optionsValue = form["Options"];
    //TODO:
    return RedirectToAction("Drop");
}

Answer 2

Also, consider that if you are not using FormCollection in your post, you could easily use the following, this is very helpful especially if you are using partial views inside the main one.

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Drop(SelectListItem item)
{

    var selectedValue = Request.Form["ID_OF_THE_DROPDOWNLIST"];
    //TODO......
    return RedirectToAction("Drop");
}