How to create a static dropdown in Razor syntax?

Question

After hours of looking on Google and Stack Overflow, I can not find one bloody example of how to build a totally brain dead simple dropdown list that does not come from a database. Honestly, I am having a hard time getting my head around MVC. Can someone please show me how to create this:

<select name="FooBarDropDown" id="FooBarDropDown">
    <option value="Option1" selected>This is Option 1</option>
    <option value="Option2">This is Option 2</option>
    <option value="Option3">This is Option 3</option>
</select>

Using this:

@Html.DropDownList....

I am looking for an all-in-one-line solution... all in the view. I am having a devil of a time with the syntax.

Answer 1

I think this is what you are looking for. It would be best though to refactor list construction into view model or in controller.

@Html.DropDownList("FooBarDropDown", new List<SelectListItem>
{
    new SelectListItem{ Text="Option 1", Value = "1" },
    new SelectListItem{ Text="Option 2", Value = "2" },
    new SelectListItem{ Text="Option 3", Value = "3" },
 }) 

An an example of placing this in the controller might look like this:

public ActionResult ExampleView()
{
    var list = new List<SelectListItem>
    {
        new SelectListItem{ Text="Option 1", Value = "1" },
        new SelectListItem{ Text="Option 2", Value = "2" },
        new SelectListItem{ Text="Option 3", Value = "3", Selected = true },
    }; 

    ViewData["foorBarList"] = list;
    return View();
}

And then in your view:

@Html.DropDownList("fooBarDropDown", ViewData["list"] as List<SelectListItem>)

If this is truly a static list that you might have to reuse in other views / controllers, then I would consider putting this logic into a static class of sorts. Example:

public static class DropDownListUtility
{   
    public static IEnumerable<SelectListItem> GetFooBarDropDown(object selectedValue)
    {
        return new List<SelectListItem>
        {
            new SelectListItem{ Text="Option 1", Value = "1", Selected = "1" == selectedValue.ToString()},
            new SelectListItem{ Text="Option 2", Value = "2", Selected = "2" == selectedValue.ToString()},
            new SelectListItem{ Text="Option 3", Value = "3", Selected = "3" == selectedValue.ToString()},
        };             
    }

Which then leaves you a few different ways of accessing the list.

Controller Example:

public ActionResult ExampleView()
{
    var list = DropDownListUtility.GetFooBarDropDown("2"); //select second option by default;
    ViewData["foorBarList"] = list;
    return View();
}

View Example:

@Html.DropDownList("fooBarDropDown", DropDownListUtility.GetFooBarDropDown("2"))

Answer 2

Have a look at the docs for this overload

public static MvcHtmlString DropDownList(
  this HtmlHelper htmlHelper,
  string name,
  IEnumerable<SelectListItem> selectList
)

So just add a reference to your List<SelectListItem>() with your options.

List<SelectListItem> items = new List<SelectListItem>();
 items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Option1", Value = "Option1"});
 items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Option2", Value = "Option2" });
 items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Option3", Value = "Option3", Selected = true });

You can even embed that in your view if you don't want to pass it from your controller.

@{
    List<SelectListItem> items = ...
}

Then use it

@Html.DropDownList("FooBarDropDown", items)