ASP.NET MVC Dropdown List From SelectList

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You are missing setting the Text and Value field in the SelectList itself. That is why it does a .ToString() on each object in the list. You could think that given it is a list of SelectListItem it should be smart enough to detect this… but it is not.

u.UserTypeOptions = new SelectList(
    new List<SelectListItem>
    {
        new SelectListItem { Selected = true, Text = string.Empty, Value = "-1"},
        new SelectListItem { Selected = false, Text = "Homeowner", Value = ((int)UserType.Homeowner).ToString()},
        new SelectListItem { Selected = false, Text = "Contractor", Value = ((int)UserType.Contractor).ToString()},
    }, "Value" , "Text", 1);

BTW, you can use a list or array of any type… and then just set the name of the properties that will act as Text and Value.

I think it is better to do it like this:

u.UserTypeOptions = new SelectList(
    new List<SelectListItem>
    {
        new SelectListItem { Text = "Homeowner", Value = ((int)UserType.Homeowner).ToString()},
        new SelectListItem { Text = "Contractor", Value = ((int)UserType.Contractor).ToString()},
    }, "Value" , "Text");

I removed the -1 item, and the setting of each item selected true/false.

Then, in your view:

@Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.UserType, Model.UserTypeOptions, "Select one")

This way, if you set the “Select one” item and don’t set one item as selected in the SelectList, the UserType will be null (the UserType need to be int? ).

If you need to set one of the SelectList items as selected, you can use:

u.UserTypeOptions = new SelectList(options, "Value" , "Text", userIdToBeSelected);

As one of the users explained in the comments:
The 4th option of the SelectList constructor is ignored when binding to a property using DropDownListFor() – it is the property’s value that determines what is selected.

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