Set custom text field in SelectList

Question

I'm trying to display a dropdown on my view page that has a custom text value.

I'm trying to display a list a Contacts. A Contact contains a ContactID, FirstName, and LastName.

<%= Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.ContactId, new SelectList(Model.Contacts, "ContactID", "LastName"), "- Select a Contact -") %>

Right now I'm just displaying the last name, but I'd like to display the first name and last name in the dropdown.

Answer 1

I've been looking for the same and your question was the first result in google. I know you asked about a year ago but for all the other people that will find this page:

    Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.ContactId, 
        new SelectList(
            Model.Contacts.Select(
            c => new 
            { 
                Id = c.ContactId, 
                FullName = c.FirstName + " " + c.LastName 
            }), 
            "Id", 
            "FullName"))

In my case I can't change the "Contact" class.

Answer 2

Change your contact class, add property:

public class Contact {
    public string FirstNameLastName { get { return FirstName + " " + LastName; } }
}

Then use it:

<%= Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.ContactId, new SelectList(Model.Contacts, "ContactID", "FirstNameLastName"), "- Select a Contact -") %>