Rendering issue using SelectList from manually defined SelectListItems in MVC 2

Question

I am using ASP.NET MVC 2 (.NET 3.5), and need to manually define what shall be an Options list. When I do so I get a drop down menu, with each of the manual entries reading 'System.Web.Mvc.SelectListItem'.

My view model defines the list as such:

    public SelectList YesNoList
    {
      get
      {
        List<SelectListItem> tmpList = new List<SelectListItem>();
        tmpList.Add(new SelectListItem {Text = "", Value = ""});
        tmpList.Add(new SelectListItem {Text = "Yes", Value = "1"});
        tmpList.Add(new SelectListItem {Text = "No", Value = "0"});
        YesNoList = new SelectList(tmpList,"");
      }
      private set{}
     }

In the view I reference this using the the Html.DropDownList:

Html.DropDownList("FieldName", viewmodel.YesNoList);

What I am expecting to be rendered on the final web page should be like:

<select id="FieldName" name="FieldName">
  <option value=""/>
  <option value="1">Yes</option>
  <option value="0">No</option>
</select>

Instead I get:

<select id="FieldName" name="FieldName">
  <option>System.Web.Mvc.SelectListItem</option>
  <option>System.Web.Mvc.SelectListItem</option>
  <option>System.Web.Mvc.SelectListItem</option>
</select>

I am at a loss, as I cannot figure out why the type is being returned so would appreciate it if anybody could point out to me what is wrong with the viewmodel definition, or point out a better way. I was hesitant to derive the SelectList from collections of C# classes as the SelectList would provide a consistant way to iterate through the values and display text.

Thanks in advance, hopefully somebody can help.

Cheers,

J

Answer 1

A dropdown can handle a List<SelectListItem> too, just send that in stead.

Html.DropDownList("FieldName", viewmodel.YesNoList);

and

public List<SelectListItem> YesNoList
{
  get
  {
    List<SelectListItem> YesNoList = new List<SelectListItem>();
    YesNoList.Add(new SelectListItem {Text = "", Value = ""});
    YesNoList.Add(new SelectListItem {Text = "Yes", Value = "1"});
    YesNoList.Add(new SelectListItem {Text = "No", Value = "0"});
    return YesNoList;
  }
  private set{}
 }

you are actually doing it wrong on making the selectlist.

it should be:

new SelectList(tmpList, "Value", "Text"); 

and then forget my above code. you can do this with any List, if you give it the list and the value and text "key"